


The People We Become

by Emily1050



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Bellarke, Canon Compliant, Eventual Romance, Eventual marriage, F/M, Family Drama, Friends to Lovers, Heda Madi, Minor Bellamy Blake/Echo, One Night Stands, Parents Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin, Post-Season/Series 05, Praimfaya | Radiation Wave, Protective Bellamy Blake, Slow Burn, Survival, The 100 (TV) Season 5
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 32,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26390719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emily1050/pseuds/Emily1050
Summary: Clarke and Bellamy had a drunken night a month before Praimfaya. Clarke is now alone in the world with nobody to speak to, but the little one growing within her and the little nightblood she found. Six years have past and Bellamy and their friends in space think they might finally have found a way to get down to Earth despite their lack of fuel by taking over a new ship. Bellarke Slow Burn.
Relationships: Bellamy Blake & Clarke Griffin, Bellamy Blake & Madi, Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin, Bellamy Blake/Echo, Clarke Griffin & Madi
Comments: 16
Kudos: 69





	1. The Results of Praimfaya

Chapter 1: The Results of Praimfaya

**Clarke’s POV**

Two Weeks After Praimfaya:

It had been about two weeks since the second end of the world. I had been awake for a few days now, recovering from the damage the radiation had on me. Looking around me I felt a void of emptiness and loneliness involving. I wondered if my friends and family in the bunker were all right? What about the people who hadn’t been selected to survive? I filled my days with tasks so I wouldn’t dare to think about the ones on the ring. Had Raven, Harper, Monty, Echo, Emory, and Murphey made it? Was what I had done enough to secure them a safe landing. What about Bellamy? Had he made it? Was he alright?

“Ughhh.” I groaned trying to stop my train of thought. “Come on Clarke, you can do this.” I decided the day I woke up in Becca’s bunker that I would radio my friends every day until we either met again or I died. I knew I was most likely speaking to a void, but I wanted... No, I needed to tell Bellamy everything I hadn’t had the guts to tell him these past months.

“Hey, Bell. I know I’ve called in to check all these past days, but I have finally accepted that whether or not you can hear me, I need to do this so that I do not forget who I was, who I am.”

A tear rolled down my face, as I thought of everything, I had failed to tell Bellamy that he needed to know.

“Bell, I have so many things to tell you and I just don’t know where to start. I know that sounds ominous, but it’s truly been difficult putting my thoughts into words.” I stopped talking and took and deep breath.

“I don’t want to prolong this, so I am just going to come right out and say it…” I sighed; this was so difficult. “Bell, I am pregnant.” I choked back a sob knowing that if he was listening, he would blame himself that I was in this situation all by myself. “Knowing you I know that if you can hear me, you’re probably either blaming yourself or cursing me for staying behind. But Bell I want you to know that if I had to do it again to save all of your lives I would. I miss you and can’t wait for these five years to pass fast so that you can come down and hopefully meet your child. Until then I will continue to update you here. Tell everyone how much I care for them and we will meet again.”

Time passed and before I knew it a month became two and the little rations I had here in Becca’s bunker were beginning to dwindle. I was already past the first trimester of my pregnancy and I needed to find a way to survive without exertion in the later stages, which meant I had a short window of about three months to settle everything before it became too dangerous for me and the baby.

“Hey Bell, today I left Becca’s bunker. Resources were scarce already, and I need to prepare for the birth of our baby. I am heading for Polis; I have packed up all the rations left here at the bunker and am ready to face the changed world around me.” I looked ahead from where I was sitting and saw what looked like an escape tube from one of the rovers hidden in the sand and decided to cut the call short and dig as much as I could. “I am going to go Bell; I think I just might have found a way to make my journey to Polis easier.”

So, I hung up and began to dig.

**Bellamy’s POV**

Murphey grumbled in his comatose state.

“Do you think he will be alright?” Emory asked me as she held his hand.

“Murphey is a cockroach; he doesn’t stay dead long. I am sure he’ll be back to his ways in a few days.” I replied calming her down.

A few minutes of silence passed and just when I thought to leave the room, I heard Murphey’s whisper. “Wa…water…please.”

“John?” Emory asked looking up to see his eyes staring right back at her. She looked at me asking me to please go get him water with her eyes.

“See I told you, it would take more than seaweed poisoning to kill him,” I said chuckling heading to bring him more water.

As the days passed and Murphey fully recovered, I couldn’t help but focus once more on the obvious lack of a bright blonde, whom I had always admired despite our many grievances in the past few years.

Three days after Murphey returned, I was standing in front of a window staring down at an orange and black looking Earth. I thought about Octavia and how she was dealing, I thought about her position as commander and if it had been threatened or if all survivors from each clan had submitted and accepted her as their new ruler and of course I thought about Clarke and her sacrifice for our survival.

“She saved us again,” Raven said walking up to me.

I nodded tearfully as I realized how much Clarke had really given up for our survival.

“Think we can do this without her?” She asked as she stared into the destroyed world beneath us.

I thought about my words and clenched my jaw, “if we don’t, she died in vain… and I am not gonna let that happen.” I turned my face towards Raven and asked, “You with me?”

“Always,” she replied as I nodded.

Clarke was gone, but she had sacrificed herself so that we could live and do better once more. She would always be a missing piece of me and all of the people we loved, but I had to move forward if I was going to do exactly what she would have wanted.

**Clarke’s POV**

Five months after Praimfaya.

I was about ready to give up and die. I had successfully dug out the Rover that’s about when my luck ended. Upon my arrival at Polis, I realized that the buildings had collapsed on top of the entrance to the bunker. I tried to remove the rubble, but that ended in worst situations that put my baby’s life in danger, therefore I decided to leave Polis be, for now, after all, it would be another five years before it was save for them to return to the ground. In the meantime, I had to find a new source of food and water because my rations were really beginning to disappear now and if I wanted to make sure my baby made it to its birth I needed to feed it enough food.

So, I set out on a journey to find food and water. During this time, I found out just about how much Praimfaya had changed the planet. Sandstorms now carried pieces of glass and were much more intense.

As the days passed and my scenery didn’t change from desserts and wastelands, I finally gave up and decided it would be best if I just ended my life. I held my self at gunpoint when I thought about the little bump that was my stomach and what that meant.

“Bell…” I said into the radio that day, “I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I am trying… I really am, but my efforts are futile. I haven’t been able to find a source of food yet and while I was able to collect water from the rain a few days ago it’ only going to last me a few more days. I wish… I wish I could turn back time to when we had just arrived here on Earth and do things differently. Being alone gives me time for nothing but to think. I regret so many things, so many wrong choices…” I stopped talking as I heard the sound of an eagle flying right above me.

“I think I just saw a bird, although that might just be me hallucinating, but anyways I am going to chase it and try to catch it. Talk to you tomorrow.”

I ran in the direction that the bird had flown hoping to find it and be able to eat. I was not prepared to find a paradise in the midst of these wastelands.

I was able to catch the bird and cook it, it was the best meal I’d had in months. I decided to explore this Eden and see if by any chance there were other survivors like myself. Instead, I found a barren village full of colors. Apparently, the death wave had skipped over this valley, but not completely for the people of the village had died in their homes or as they did their daily tasks.

“Today has been a rough day Bell. I found a ghost village here in this Eden. Unfortunately, the people died and so I’ve been burning corpses all day long and reciting the Trikru saying…” I broke down into sobs as I watched the last three bodies catch on fire. “I know it’s wrong, but my stomach has been queasy as a result of the smell of death. By the way, the baby seems fine, as far as I can tell.”

I saw something move in the distance and decided to follow it. It moved swiftly through the trees.

“Hey, wait up,” I yelled realizing it was a child. I was too pregnant to follow her through the trees at the speed she was going.

Finally, she was cornered, and I was able to catch up to her.

“You are a nightblood, right?” I asked in the language of the tribes, although I already knew the answer her clan had all perished, she was the only survivor just like me.

I stepped forward without looking and walked straight into a bear trap this little girl had set up for me.

“Aghh,” I cried out in pain, catching myself with my other leg before I fell and holding my baby bump. I looked up and called out saying, “my name is Clarke. What’s yours?”

And that’s how I met Madi the girl that I would come to call my daughter.


	2. Chapter 2: Six Years and 7 days After Praimfaya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there guys, so I am Emily1050. And if you think this fanfiction looks familiar it's because I've been writing it on Fanfiction.Net. anyways I am new to AO3 so please bear with me. I hope you guys like this story and I am going to be posting the eight chapters that have already been published today. Thank you!

**Six Years and 7 days After Praimfaya.**

**Bellamy’s POV**

I woke up from my night sleep staring at the ceiling in the room I had come to call my own in the last six years and seven days.

I turned to my side and stared at Echo’s relaxed features and wondered. If Clarke were alive what would have become of our relationship.

After I decided to move forward for Clarke, I made the conscious decision to stop thinking about the latest developments that had happened in our relationship. Starting with the night we had slept together a few weeks before Praimfaya. Of course, we had barely been conscious when it occurred otherwise it would have never happened. I hated waking up after a night of intimacy because staring at Echo sleeping beneath the blanket brought back those memories of my little blonde spitfire sleeping in a similar situation at my side that morning when we agreed that when Praimfaya passed we would discuss our relationship.

Now I had to live knowing I’d never fully told her how much I really loved her.

I felt Echo shift beside me, and I smiled at her waking state. “Hey, beautiful.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere Blake.” She replied opening her eyes with a smile.

“I don’t need flattery when I’ve already got you right where I want you,” I replied hugging her to me.

“KNOCK KNOCK love birds, wake up we need to have a meeting in the mess hall in five,” Raven screamed from outside their door.

“Shh stay quiet, maybe then she’ll go away,” I said as a joke.

Echo sat up and glared at me, “I am going to get stuck doing some stupid task like cleaning the bathrooms, because of you Blake.”

I laughed and stood up, quickly finding my clothes for the day.

Walking into the mess hall didn’t hold the same meaning as it had six years prior, whereas before we would sit in silence and eat the disgusting algae Monty had created, now everyone was full of jokes and laughter as we ate the new experimental recipes Monty and Harper made every day, which mostly consisted of goop he liked to call soup and juice.

“So, tell me, chef, what do we have for breakfast today?” I asked smiling at Monty.

“Well, we had some leftover algae soup from yesterday so that with some algae juice and we’re set for breakfast.” He said smiling.

“Okay Emori, eat fast we need to meet in the hangar in ten to try and make radio contact again,” Raven said as she stuffed her face with the green soup and gagged. “Six years of eating this and cannot get over how bad it tastes still.”

We all laughed and went back to eating. I gulped my soup and juice and gave a container to Monty.

“Seconds?” He asked smiling.

“Yeah right, I choose Murphy,” I said grabbing the goop and walking away.

As I walked to Murphy’s side of the ship, I was tackled by him and dropped his container.

“This is my side of the ship, remember? What’s the matter? You wanted me to train, right, so let’s do it.” I fought to get him off me and when that failed, I decided it best to slam him against the wall.

We panted for a bit and then I spoke. “All right, but I win, you come back to the group.”

Murphey sat on the floor and shook his head, “No deal.” He stood up and continued, “you have too many rules, besides, there’s no one to disappoint over here.”

I shook my head, “Mur-.” I was stopped as he slammed his fist into my face. We kept fighting and talking for a bit and then I had him pressed against a window, “You’re not worthless Murphy.”

“Wait, wait. Bellamy, look. Oh!” He said as I pressed my knee into his stomach.

“Say you’re not worthless, and I’ll let you go.”

“Not kidding! Will you look? Look!” I turned my face towards the window and couldn’t believe what I was watching. Another ship had just entered the space surrounding Earth’s atmosphere.

“Let’s go.” I said walking away. When I turned around and found him still staring, I repeated “Come on!”

After we observed and discussed the best course of action as a team, we saw them deploy a dropship heading for Earth and decided to try and land our capsule with the little gas it had to their docking area. We discovered a way to refuel and radio coms of what they were discussing back on Earth.

While listening to them we heard “Movement to the Northwest, McCreary, do you see it?”

McCreary then responded, “I have something better than movement; I’ve got tracks.”

I couldn’t believe it, our people were alive and well, and if we didn’t hurry up they would soon be prisoners.

Raven turned around with a worried, yet angered face, “they’re hunting our people.”

“We don’t know that,” Murphy responded.

“We know there was no one else left on the ground,” I answered worried sick.

“Whatever this is, Octavia can handle it.” Echo said as a response to my worry.

“Move over,” Raven said lightly pushing Monty.

“Wait, what are you doing,” I asked worriedly.

“Finding out who we’re dealing with.”

**Clarke’s POV**

“Aurora and Madi are doing okay Bell. Aurora is five already and well she loves to hear stories of the great Bellamy and Octavia Blake. On that note, it’s been six years and seven days since Praimfaya and I’ve told myself a million times that the reason why you’re not here is because Raven hasn’t been able to figure out a way to get down safely, but I am starting to lose hope. I hope to see you guys soon.”

“Clarke!” Madi screamed.

“What is it?” I asked she would have never interrupted my time talking to the radio unless it was something important.

“Look.” She said pointing with one hand to the sky and holding Aurora’s hand tightly with the other. 

“It can’t be,” I whispered into the radio. “Never mind Bell, I’ll see you soon,” I said as tears of happiness rolled down my face.

Then I realized that the ship coming down was much too big for it to be them.

“Madi, stay hidden with Aurora. That ship is too big to be them. I’m going to go check it out, if it’s them I’ll come get you guys to meet them. Stay hidden no matter what you hear me.” I said turning to them.

Madi nodded, and Aurora just stared. “Mommy, are going to get to meet aunty Raven and Uncle Monty?”

“Maybe Sweetie,” I whispered.

“What about Bellamy?” She continued. I had never allowed Aurora to call Bellamy, her uncle. No matter how much she wanted to. I had also not really explained that he was her dad. I felt that was a conversation for when she was older and able to better understand.

“I can’t say for sure. Now be good for your sister ok?” When they both nodded at me, I went and found a fallen tree with a whole nearby where they would have air supply and not be visible.

“Stay safe.” I finally told them walking to where the dropship had landed.

When I got to the landing sight, I stayed where they couldn’t see me, and I was surprised to see people I had never seen before. They were scouting and, in that heading, straight for our village. I decided it was best to distract them to chase me. That would keep them away from where Madi and Aurora were hiding.

“Movement to the Northwest, McCreary, do you see it?” A man said as he saw me running. Perfect I would lead him straight into a trap.

“I have something better than movement; I’ve got tracks.” Another man responded.

I decided to be as obvious in which direction I wanted them to go as I could. Then from the corner of my eye, I spotted Madi huddled near where I was leading them. “Madi what the hell are you doing?” I asked worried that they would see her.

“I heard shouting and got scared that something would happen to you, Clarke.”

“It’s okay, I am alright, but I need you and Aurora to be well hidden right now.”

“There she is.” I heard a man scream. I turned around and saw that they were coming straight for me and Madi.

“Go! Run!” I yelled at Madi, deciding to gain her time by fighting them off as much as I could.

I was able to kill four, but when I was about to kill the fifth, I saw another about to grab Madi who was hiding behind a tree. Making the decision to attack first the one nearest to Madi was a bad mistake on my part because it meant that the one near me had a clear shot to get me. I immediately grabbed my gun, aimed, and shot.

The guy fell and Madi was able to run, however, I was caught. The guy laughed in a creepy way before he knocked me out.

**Bellamy’s POV**

**“** Murder, murder, murder, murder, arson resulting in murder, armed robbery resulting in murder. Three hundred inmates, twenty-five guards, and twelve crew.” I said as I passed each of the files of the people to whom this ship belongs to.

“Relax, great-great-grandpappy Blake was an astronaut with how many PH.D.S,” Raven asked as she typed away on the other computer.

I took a minute to think about her question and sighed, “four.”

“And how many do you have?” She smirked, knowing I had none. “Oh, wait shut up. I got it. It’s the captain’s log.”

I looked at the screen in bewilderment. “The last entry was over a hundred years ago. Play that one.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Raven said as she followed my instructions.

The video’s intel was quite disturbing. It was then that we were attacked by one of the prisoners, as we figured out that the prisoners had been kept un cryo-sleep.

We also realized that the one that had attacked us was awakened as a result of us being here. We decided to use the prisoners as leverage so that we could rescue our people down there. That’s when we realized that one of us would have to stay in order to pull the plug on the prisoners if we needed to.

“It has to be me,” Raven said.

“I am not leaving you here,” I said looking at her.

“I’ll be fine, Emori can get you down. That’s what I trained her for.” She began to pace, “you need to go and find your sister and make a deal for peace with the prisoners. Once everyone’s friends, they’ll come back up for their people, and I’ll hitch a ride down with them.”

“What if the threat doesn’t work? You’ll be stuck here, Raven. You’ll have to kill three hundred people.” I took a step back, “have you thought about that?”

“No, no, we’ll come up with something else.” I closed my eyes remembering Clarke. “I left Clarke behind to die, and I…” I stopped as the tears filled my eyes. “I’m not doing that again.” I looked at her seriously.

“There’s an escape pod, you idiot.” She stared into my eyes intently, “for the captain and the first mate. When this is all over if you fail, I can go down in that.”

I took a deep breath. “Hey,” she continued. “Six years ago, I promised myself I would find a way to us back down. Bellamy, this is it. Please, let me get you home.”

We decided then to go, I would tell Murphy to stay by Raven and if things went South on the ground all they had to do was get in the escape pod and they’d be with us.

Having Emori drive was quite frightening, there were times on our way down that I thought we were doomed. Until finally we landed safely on the ground that we had run away from six years ago.

“Vertical landing successful,” the computer said.

“You did it.” Harper sighed.

Emori was breathing heavily and so I called out her name, “Emori. Emori?”

“We didn’t die.” She said smiling at me.

I laughed, “no, no we didn’t.”

We all begun to laugh, “we’ll celebrate once Murphy and Raven are back down, too,” Echo said. “There’s no telling how many people saw us. We need to take cover in the trees before they get here.”

I nodded knowing that Echo was right, “yeah.”

Walking on the ground again felt so strange. It was like something you reminisce from your childhood yet can’t quite point to what it is exactly.

“How do we find them?” Monty asked me.

“We don’t, they’ll find us.” Echo answered.

That’s when we heard a gun reloading and saw a group of men walk towards us, “they already have.”

We raised our hands in surrender and decided to let them know we were not threats.

“Four of us are dead… it’s time we even the score,” the woman on the man’s radio said.

He turned to us and smiled, “congratulations one of you gets to live.”

That’s when we heard a set of fast gunshots, one after the other and tensed. Then a girl with a gun in her hand walked forward.

“She’s just a kid.” I said with wide-open eyes.

“Bellamy?” the girl asked walking towards me. I scrunched my forehead wondering how this girl knew my name.

“Madi did you say, Bellamy,” a younger voice said from the trees.

“Aurora stay hidden,” the girl replied, “Clarke knew you would come.”

We all looked at each other. Clarke? As in the woman I had loved more than anything and then abandoned to die so that I could selfishly live.

“Clarke’s alive?” I asked.

“She’s in trouble. We have to go.”

“What about the others in the bunker?” Monty asked, walking a few steps forward so that he could stand closer to the girl.

“Still there.” She replied.

“What? No, no. How can that be?” I said.

“I’ll explain on the way.” She said grabbing my hand and dragging me towards the place from where the voice had called earlier.

Once we reached the trees, we saw a little girl, she couldn’t be more than five or four, with the curly brown hair and sparkling innocent blue eyes, just like Clarke’s.

“Who is this?” I asked the girl, whose name we still didn’t know.

“I am Madi and this is Aurora, we’re Clarke’s daughters.” She said as she picked up her little sister and placed her on her hip.

“What?” I asked.


	3. Chapter 3:

Chapter 3: The People We Love

**Bellamy’s POV**

“I am Madi and this is Aurora, we’re Clarke’s daughters.” She said as she picked up her little sister and placed her on her hip.

“What?” I asked.

Madi sighed and whispered something into Aurora’s ear before letting her back down on the floor. Then the little blue-eyed girl as silent as one could rushed into the trees and disappeared from our view.

“I told her to return to our hiding spot, come on I’ll tell you everything once we’re on the Rover.” She said staring intently at me. She then turned her back to us and took off running in the opposite direction that Aurora had gone to.

I didn’t even hesitate before I followed her through the trees. Once we reached a well-hidden clearing, I finally spotted the Rover. I couldn’t believe that Clarke had been able to not only find it but also to make it function.

“I’ll drive,” Madi said, heading towards the driver’s seat.

I am sure my face told just how worried I was at that point. “Hey, hey wait,” I said hurrying to catch her before she entered the Rover.

“Yes?” She asked turning around to see me.

“How about I drive, and you tell us everything?” I said holding her shoulders. For a second, I saw her face shift to opposition, but immediately that was replaced with a nod.

I took the driver’s seat and Madi sat in the passenger, Monty, Harper, Echo, and Emori got into the back and I took off.

“So where should I start?” Madi asked thoughtfully.

“How about you tell us what exactly happened to Clarke and how she met you, girls, then you can explain why it is that the bunker remains sealed despite the Earth being safe for more than a year now?” Monty asked.

Madi nodded and begun, “Clarke told me that after she went to the tower to turn on the ring, she was suffering the effects of the death wave, full of blisters and burns… She says she thought she was going to die when she reached Becca’s bunker and passed out.”

She stopped to point me in which direction to turn and I did as she said.

“Then after a few days her nightblood begun to kick in, she then begun to recuperate. It was about then that she realized she was pregnant.”

I stopped the Rover suddenly and everyone’s body shifted forward at the sudden stop.

“Did you say _pregnant_?” I asked slightly disturbed. As far as I knew Clarke’s most recent lover had been Niylah, and well technically there was me, but I found that rather unlikely, if not impossible. I am sure Clarke had probably slept with some other guy and little Aurora was the result of that.

“Yeah, she began preparing to set out and check on things at the bunker and also to leave Becca’s bunker so she could find food and water since the bunker’s resources were scarce. Within two months of Praimfaya, she felt prepared to leave and did so. She knew it was a long journey from Becca’s lab to Polis, but hoped that she’d somehow make it, then she found the rover and dug it out. From there the story is short she gets to Polis and finds the buildings have collapsed on top of the bunker’s entrance. She decides to look for a food and water source and finds this,” she says pointing to the outside. “Then she took the time to give the village’s people a proper goodbye and finds me. That’s pretty much it.”

“So, you guys haven’t been able to open the bunker?” asked Harper. Madi responded by shaking her head.

“Bellamy the village is right ahead,” Madi says and begins to prepare to get down.

“Alright everyone prepare yourselves.”

**Clarke’s POV**

When I woke up, I was tied up inside the village. There were a dozen or fewer soldiers walking around. That’s when a tall, dark blonde woman neared me as one of the soldiers held my face up by pulling on my hair. A younger looking guy stood by her side and he gave me a grimace as he said “you only caught one?”

The one holding me, whose name I later learned was McCreary said, “We only saw one.”

What? Hadn’t the one who’d caught me seen Madi?

The younger boy, whose name was Shaw, turned towards the woman and begun speaking about his doubts that I was alone. The woman then began to question me about how many people were with me in the woods? I chose to stay silent and act like I couldn’t understand their words.

As a response to my silence, she turned to McCreary and gave him a nod. I guess that was her signal for him to hit me with the bottom of his gun.

I fell on the floor at the contact and begun to see black spots.

McCreary then kneeled in front of me and demanded that I answer the question, to which I responded with more silence. The McCreary attempted to hit me once more, but the woman, otherwise known as Diyoza, stopped him.

“First we pray,” she said, and McCreary took that as an order to restrain me in the village’s church. “Secure the perimeter. Her people will come for her.”

 _Ha-ha_ my people consisted of two young girls whom I had given strict orders to stay hidden, now I just had to hope and pray that Madi followed my instructions and kept Aurora safe.

Walking into the church left a bittersweet taste in my lips. There were good and bad memories here, after all this is where I’d raised my two little nightbloods and where I had also found an entire civilization extinct.

McCreary led me to a chair and then tied me to it. After he looked down on me and I continued my silence, he decided it was time to punch me.

“Hey, hey. Stop.” Shaw yelled rushing in to hold McCreary down. “We need her.”

They need me? Why?

Then Shaw and McCreary started fighting each other until Diyoza stepped in and stopped them.

I stopped paying attention to what was going on around me and honestly didn’t even realize that Diyoza had started to question me again.

When she shook me, I came back to the situation at hand and instead focused on what was being said on the radio comms.

“Someone just came out of that cave.” McCreary on radio comm said. I got nervous, knowing that the only possible choices happened to be my two little girls.

“Harris, Falk. Watch your six.” Another man said through the comms.

“Got that. Fast little thing.” Those words sent shivers down my spine. What was Madi thinking? “We can cut her off at the lake. Changing direction, now.”

I began to struggle in my chair against the rope, trying to set myself free.

“Wait, scratch that. She’s running North. I got a shot”

“No!” I said to Shaw. “She’s just a child.” I shook my head as the worst possible scenarios played out in my head.

“See I told you, she speaks,” Diyoza said listening to me plead.

“Please,” I said turning to her.

“How many others are in the woods?”

“Just my two daughters and I,” I said sighing. I had to answer if that meant Aurora and Madi would stay safe. “I am begging you. Tell him not to shoot.”

“Fire at will,” Diyoza said into the radio.

“Copy,” McCreary responded on the other side. “She went behind those twin rocks! Falk! Take her on the other side.”

I realized that Madi was leading them to a trap, “I know where they are. That’s our summer hunting grounds. She’s leading them into a trap.”

“I see her. Going in. Cover me.” Falk said.

I began to get really worried, “listen to me! If they don’t stop right now, those men will die.”

“I believe her,” Shaw said.

“It’s the truth,” I responded. I turned back to Diyoza, “if you let her and her sister go, I’ll tell you everything.”

She considered it for a second before giving the command that they stop following the girl. She then told them to verify if there were traps near their location.

What? Did she expect me to risk the lives of my children and lie? Just as I had promised soon McCreary’s voice verified that I had indeed shared the truth. “Report to base camp. Over and out.” Diyoza said into the comms.

“Thank you,” I said sincerely.

She looked at me and nodded, “thank you for telling the truth. As long as you keep doing that your children in the woods will stay alive, and so will you. Do we understand each other?”

“Yes,” I said nodding as a tear slipped down my face.

How had things happened so fast? One-minute Madi, Aurora, and I were enjoying the breeze and nature the next we see the dropship and assume it’s our friends, only to get caught up in some shady stuff with these strangers.

So I began to tell Diyoza and Shaw everything that had happened. Then as I was talking the radio comm interrupted me.

“Ugh. Colonel, we have five more hostiles. At least one is armed. Are we still playing nice?”

What? There was no possible way that there were actually other people on the ground. I began to shake my head.

“Stand by,” Diyoza said into the comm. “Find out where they are and reinforce their position. McCreary, you stay here.” That’s when she turned to me, “what did I tell you would happen if you lied to me?”

“I didn’t lie.” I said, “I don’t know…” I was unable to finish my sentence as Diyoza punched me.

Diyoza turned towards McCreary, “take her outside. Use the collar.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Shaw then tried to rescue me, but Diyoza replied by saying that my cooperation had bought me my life, but it had not saved me from receiving punishment.

Diyoza stared at me as McCreary went to untie me from the chair. She then grabbed the radio comm, “four of ours are dead. It’s time to even the score.”

“No, please. I don’t know who they are.” I plead, but my cries fell of deaf ears.

“Get up!” McCreary said placing a collar tightly on my neck and pulled me up. He shoved me out the church’s door and I rolled down the steps of the entry stairs.

I cried in pain and immediately attempted to pull on the collar.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You might burn your fingers.” McCreary said as he pressed on a button and shocked me.

I heard hoots and yeah’s from the other soldiers and cried.

“Please…” I begged, “I wasn’t lying.”

“Hit her again.”

I groaned as the electricity shocked me once more.

“I don’t know who that was.” I plead as tears rolled down my eyes.

“Shock her again McCreary,” Diyoza repeated.

“No, ple…” I fell to my knees in pain.

That’s when the village center was lit with a bright white light. I looked at it and noticed it was our Rover. Oh, Madi, what have you done now?

“Hold, and fire on my command,” Diyoza said to her soldiers.

I was shocked once more. “Aghhh,” I yelled from the floor. I fought with all my might so I could sit up. “Madi! No!”

I saw the driver's seat open and yelled at her again, except the shadow that stepped forward was too tall to be Madi. The man had an arm raised in the air “I am unarmed.”

It was Bellamy.

“I just want to talk.”

“Then talk,” Diyoza responded. “Give me one good reason why I should not kill you right now.”

“Bellamy?”

He turned his gaze from Diyoza to me and I could see his tears sparkling in the light. He sighed and turned again towards Diyoza. “How about I give you two hundred eighty-three,” he said, “that’s how many people are gonna die if you and I can’t make a deal.” He then raised up his other hand, in which he held a mug.

He then gave a signal to the rover and I am guessing someone had crossed to the driver’s seat because the rover went backward fast and soon disappeared from sight.

He then walked closer until Diyoza told him to hold still. “Two hundred eighty-three lives for one?” Diyoza said, “she must be pretty special to you.”

Bellamy didn’t falter, “she is that and much more.”

I smiled, my best friend, the man I had missed beyond compare for the past six years was here. Standing in front of me, alive. The father of my daughter for who’s life I had risked it all. At last, I allowed myself to relax for the first time in six years.


	4. Chapter 4: Together At Last?

**Bellamy’s POV**

Seeing Clarke’s broken form on the ground was the most heart-breaking thing that could have happened to me, next to believing her dead for the last six years.

After I threatened the three hundred and eighty-three people in exchange for Clarke’s life, I made a deal with them in which they would help us open the bunker and we would share the valley equally, none of their men would die.

Clarke was then carried away to a prison cell where they had laid her down on a bed to recover.

After I came to an agreement with Diyoza and her men they led me to the cell that Clarke had been taken to.

Once I got there, I noticed she needed help to sit up, so I helped her, and sat beside her.

“You’re really here.” She whispered in disbelief as she hugged me tightly. I held her back and let all the pain of losing her wash away in that moment.

Breaking apart to see each other’s faces she asked, “Madi?”

She is safe. She is in the woods with the others. Diyoza won’t look for them as long as we’re in control.”

“You mean you all survived, Monty, Murphy, Raven?”

“Echo and Emori, yeah. Clarke, you saved us all.” I saw her lips twist to a smile.

“And now you’re home.” I nodded and held her again.

“How have you been?” I asked Clarke as tears flooded my eyes. After what felt like a lifetime, I had my little blonde spitfire within grasp.

She raised her head and stared brokenly into my eyes as tears fell down her face.

“I am much better now that you’re here,” she said with a smirk. I smiled at that, trust Clarke to joke when she is suffering.

“I am so sorry Clarke.”

“What for? You just saved me.” She replied smiling as she attempted to sit up. I went to help her and made sure that I told her everything I needed to tell her now.

“I am sorry for leaving you behind. I’ve dealt with believing you dead for the last six years and I have not been able to fully move forward when I feel this heavy burden for betraying you...” My ramble was interrupted by a passionate kiss from the girl before me.

As much as I loved her, I was in a committed relationship with Echo for the last three years and I couldn’t do that to either of them. So, I pulled back and stared with a guilty stare into her eyes.

“What is it?” she asked her smile dissipating from her face.

“I am sorry Clarke; I can’t do this again,” I said turning my back to her and walking away.

“Do what?” She asked hesitantly. I stood still and in silence pondering my next move.

“When I thought you had died, I believed that you would have wanted for all of us, who you saved to move forward and so I tried really hard, but I lived with the guilt of leaving you behind and Echo became my shelter from myself…” I sighed, this conversation was so awkward and painful, “she and I are dating, we have been for the last three years, and while I still love you, I also care for her and I cannot, will not do what Finn did to you and Raven. I think that we should stay best friends as we were before. Okay?” I asked looking into her face that had shifted from hesitance, to pain, which she had quickly hidden.

“If that’s what you think is best, then I guess you’re right Bellamy. I am sorry for being so forward.” She turned her back to me and I knew she was trying to hide the tears.

“Clarke…”

“It’s alright, I think I just need a moment to let my brain catch up with everything that has happened today.” She finally stood up and walked to the door of the room.

I wanted to ask her who Aurora’s dad was but felt that it’d be intrusive of me, especially after I had just broken her heart. I also wanted to know why she had named her Aurora.

That had been my mother’s name. Had Clarke done it to honor me in some way…

I guess I’ll talk to her about it when things calm down.

**Clarke’s POV**

Bellamy Blake

The man I had hated, trusted, loved, mourned, and now I felt that love cry as his news impacted me.

He had moved on, of course, I would have wanted him to. He deserved to be happy. But what about Aurora, what was I supposed to do about her.

She was as much his daughter as she was mine and he had a right to know but knowing Bellamy he’d want to take responsibility for her the moment he found out. He would not hesitate to leave Echo if he thought his daughter needed him to raise alongside her mother.

No, I couldn’t tell him. At least not yet. Not until things had settled down and he and I could come up with a way to raise her together despite us not being together.

Oh God, why was my life always so complicated.

“Clarke!” I heard Bellamy call my name as he entered the church where I was sitting near Shaw and Diyoza. “I have Raven on the line and want to surprise her with you.” He held up a radio comm.

“Raven,” he said into the comm as we both sat next to each other.

“Yes?” I heard Raven’s voice and tears welled in my eyes. Yes, Bellamy had told me she was alive, but hearing her voice was a feeling all on its own.

“I have someone who really wants to talk to you.” He then handed me the radio comm and smiled.

“Hey Raven, Murphy,” I said with a smile.

“Clarke?” She whispered, “Clarke is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me,” I confirmed.

“Jeez, and they call me cockroach.” I heard Murphy say on the other end leading to Bellamy and I laughing.

“I don’t believe it,” Raven whispered.

“Hey, you guys just be careful up there ok? We’ll talk more once this is all over. I want to hear everything.” I said smiling.

“Ok, but first. Thank you for saving our lives,” Raven said.

“I miss you both,” I whispered. Bellamy then signaled that it was time for us to go, and I nodded and said my final goodbyes to my friends.

It was great to have my friends back. After a quick chat with both Murphy and Raven, we decided it best to rest and prepare for departure the following day seeing as how we were leaving for Polis on the dropship so that we could open the gate to the underground bunker.

The trip to Polis was faster than I expected, and with their equipment, the bunker was finally opened with barely any effort needed. Bellamy and I decided to drop first, just in case our people assumed that this was a hostile rescue.

**Bellamy’s POV**

I don’t know why but the entire trip to Polis was filled with an awkward silence between Clarke and I and that scared me, so I tried to make conversation.

“So all this time, Madi and Aurora have been with you hugh?” I asked. I noticed Clarke tense and nod. “You really didn’t give me too many motherly vibes when we first arrived here you know,” I said trying to lighten the mood.

“I always wanted to be a mother…” she stopped and considered her words, “I suspected I was pregnant when I didn’t get my period that month before Praimfaya, but I blamed it on the stress of the situation. Then after I recovered in Becca’s lab, I was always throwing up the daily rations and I finally confirmed my suspicions via a blood test in the lab. Then I found Madi and vowed to love and protect her as much as I would the child I was carrying.”

She went quiet again, and I sighed. “Clarke, listen I don’t want to hurt you anymore, so please forgive me for all the pain I have caused you since I landed back here.”

“You are not at fault Bellamy. I understand fully that you’ve moved on. That’s ok, it’s part of those years that we were, unfortunately, unable to be in each other lives. As for our agreement to talk about our relationship after Praimfaya, I think we have spoken enough about it. Now forgive me for being hurt. It’s not your fault ok.”

Clarke reached for her seatbelt and I could see her clench her hand around it so tightly that her knuckles were completely white.

“We’re here,” Diyoza announced over the dropships comm.

There was no way in hell I would have ever imagined the bunker the way we found it when we opened it. I was not prepared then for what we were about to face, heck I still don’t really understand how it is we were able to surpass it.


	5. Chapter 5: The Ones Left Behind

Chapter 5: The One’s Left Behind

**Clarke’s POV**

The bunker was a mess of protesting. From what Octavia had told us, people had behaved and followed her rule well into the fifth year after Praimfaya, unfortunately this last years the clans had all began revolting and had begun riotings.

“I just don’t understand how you’re still commander?” Bellamy asked Octavia as we sat in the clan representatives meeting room.

“It’s mainly been thanks to Indra, Abby, and Kane. When necessity really begun to become the topic of discussion, Gaia tried to settle everyone down by stating that I had won the conclave and therefore had earned my title. That helped a bit, but then the grounders started a rumor that I was giving all of the left-over rations to Skaikru and not them.” She looked so tired, “you honestly couldn’t have returned at a better time.” She then stood up from her seat and went over to her brother and hugged him.

He hugged her back, “I missed you little sister.”

“I missed you, big brother.”

I smiled at them and thought about my mom, I had seen her and Kane when we arrived, but had come to discuss things with Diyoza and Octavia.

“So, we’re in agreeance that we can share Eden for a small amount of time and borrow your doctors in exchange for our support to help you build your new village there,” Diyoza said.

“Yes, we will help you in any way we can,” Octavia responded nodding.

“Alright I am going to tell Shaw to pilot the dropship back to the mothership so that he can bring your people down. I’ll see you later.” Diyoza then walked out of the room.

I looked at Octavia and thought of Madi and Aurora. I wonder where they were. “Bell!” I said drawing his attention.

“Yeah, Clarke,” he said looking up from his embrace with his sister.

“Where are Madi, Aurora, and the others?” I asked.

“I told Madi to start driving here after she dropped me off, I am guessing they should be arriving at any time now.”

I nodded and stood up from my seat. “I am going to go talk to my mom, see you guys later.”

I left the room and swallowed the lump in my throat how was I going to tell Bellamy that he was a father.

I asked around for my mom’s location which led me to the med bay.

“Hey mom!” I said standing in the medical bay’s entry way.

My mom looked up from what she was writing and smiled as tears welled up in her eyes, “hey baby girl.”

I ran as fast as my legs would carry me and she stood up so we could hug.

“I missed you so much mom,” I whispered as I tightened my hold on her.

“I missed you too, sweetheart.”

“I have so many things to tell you.” She pulled away from our embrace and looked into my eyes.

“Then let’s catch up.” She smiled up at me and I nodded as a tear slipped down my face.

**Bellamy’s POV**

After Clarke left Octavia and I by our selves I found that my sister needed much encouraging and uplifting. It looked like the last six years had been rough on all of us, but especially for the people in bunker.

“Hey, how about I tell you a goodnight story like when you were a kid and you take a nap in your room,” I recommended.

She smiled and nodded standing up and walking into her room.

After Octavia fell asleep, I left her room and went to see if Madi and the others had arrived. I still needed to ask Clarke about Aurora’s father but decided to leave the conversation for another day.

I walked to where we had set up stairs and left the bunker behind in hopes of seeing if at least the rover parked somewhere nearby the entry hole.

“Bellamy!” Madi cried jumping out of the rover and walking to the back so she could pick up Aurora. Madi walked back with her sister resting on her hip and a smile lighting up her face.

“Do we get to meet Aunty Octavia?” asked Aurora.

“Octavia is sleeping right now, but I am sure once she wakes up, she will not let you girls out of her sight,” I said chuckling.

I don’t know why, but Aurora reminded me so much of Octavia at that age, yes, my sister had straight hair and brown eyes, but still there was something between them that just screamed resemblance.

“I want her to train me to be a warrior like her,” Aurora said trying to turn herself to look at me. I smiled at her and nodded encouragingly.

“Hey Bellamy, are you going to forget about us after only one day?” Emori asked as they too jumped out of the Rover.

“Hi guys, I hope Madi drove okay?”

“Well she’s better than you, that’s for sure,” Echo said laughing. I walked past the girls and went to hug Echo. I didn’t realize that Clarke had come out of the bunker too and kissed Echo.

“Hey Aurora, Madi how about you girls go down there to meet Grandma Abby?” I heard Clarke say and stiffened.

I pulled away from Echo and didn’t let Echo’s glare go unnoticed.

“Clarke!” Harper said running to greet her followed by Monty.

Clarke smiled as her eyes filled with unshed tears, “hey guys.” They hugged and immediately went to catch up.

“Have you asked her yet about who Aurora’s dad is?” Echo asked me, and I shook my head no.

“I don’t thing it’s any of my business if she doesn’t feel comfortable telling me yet. I also want to wait to get used to each other again before I ask her.” I stared into Echo’s eyes and saw the storm raging inside her. “Hey how about I show you to our room for the night?”

She calmed slightly and smiled following me into the bunker.

**Clarke’s POV**

It hurt that I had to continue keeping secrets from my family and friends. I had told my mom about Aurora. I had told her almost the entire truth only excluding that she was a nightblood by birth and who her father was. In fact, if anyone asked, I had to tell them I had given her and Madi my bone marrow in order to make them nightbloods otherwise there would be a power struggle once more in between the clans. If anybody questioned Octavia’s rule and there were born nightbloods that would call for a conclave and a replacement of the Commander. That would make not only both of them responsible for the whole of humanity, but it would also put them in a fight against each other and I couldn’t let that happen.

“Clarke, I know you don’t yet know the full extent of everything that has happened here, but Octavia needs serious help,” my mom had sort of filled in a lot of the missing information about what had been going on here, she had however refrained from sharing everything saying that there were parts of the story that were not her story to tell.

“I just can’t believe that the water recycler broke down leading to an outbreak of cholera. Thank goodness Cholera is a disease that has been resolved for so many centuries already.”

My mom broke down laughing, “I laugh now, but since we didn’t know that the recycler had broken down then I honestly felt like the world was spinning on my shoulders. Thankfully nobody died and I was able to figure out the problem before hand.”

“Anyways mom, I have sprung so many things on you in one day, I kind of want to know how your feeling?”

My mom had not yet truly shared with me her thoughts on me having Aurora and adopting Madi, she had been taken back when I’d told her, but quickly regained her composure and congratulated me. I felt like I owed her a lot, especially now that I could understand what it felt like having children of my own. I finally understood her overprotection from when I was still a teen.

“Honestly honey, I think most people get at least a nine month preparation period to become grandparents, and I apparently became a grandma twice with no time to prepare whatsoever,” she laughed and I could see the new and old wrinkles that she had developed in the last five years.

My mom had always looked great, but these last five years had apparently taken a big toll on her life. Her once blondish brown hair had a few visible strings of white and her face had developed new wrinkles around the ends of her eyes, her forehead and mouth. Apart from that he just looked sickly tired.

“I wish you could have been there with me mom,” I said looking into her eyes and feeling relief wash over me. “Although I am glad you were here, where you were safe and useful. These people you their lives after all mom.”

“I wish I could say that were true, it’s honestly been a group effort. Jackson and I have treated more patients from diseases and illnesses we’d never even heard before, Kane and Octavia have tried to ration our resources and keep the people at bay for so long, plus they both also served as emergency nurses.” She laughed as she remembered that, and I couldn’t help but smile.

Yes, life hadn’t been easy for any of us, but at least we were all together once more to help each other carry the weight that befell us as a family rather than an individual.

“Wait, you mean Kane actually assisted you as a nurse?” I asked with a smirk in bewilderment.

My mom had tears streaming down her face as she nodded and laughed.

It was then that there was a knock on the door. We both stifled our laughter and turned around to see who it was.

“I am guessing you’re Dr. Griffin?” Diyoza asked once she saw we had stopped our conversation for her.

My mom walked forward until she was besides me before she responded Diyoza’s question with a nod.

“Yes, that would be me.” My mom’s shoulders had stiffened when she had seen Diyoza.

“In my deal with Bellamy we agreed that upon us opening the entrance to the bunker we would be able to request your immediate presence in our mothership in order to deal with our many sick people,” she said this and sighed. “If you have a colleague that Wonkru can also spare we’d be infinitely grateful.”

I place my hand on my mom’s shoulder and reminded her to relax. “Help these people mom, then you can come back down and meet your granddaughters and tell them just how awesome their grandmother is.”

Her shoulders relaxed and she smiled at me, “I wish I could meet them before I left though.”

I nodded looking down woefully. “I think you may be able to Dr. Griffin I saw the rover arrive a few minutes before I came down here. However, I do wish to leave to the mothership within fifteen minutes so please do hurry to greet your grandchildren and collect your medical utensils. See you then.” Diyoza then turned around and walked away.

“Come on, mom grab your and Jackson’s medicine bags and I’ll go get Jackson, we barely have time for you to meet the girls.” I didn’t wait to see her response before I ran down the hall and to the dining area. There I knew I would find Jackson and Miller enjoying a meal together.

“Jackson!” I called out.

He turned around when he heard his name being called out and smiled when he noticed it was me. “Clarke!” He stood up from his seat and begun to make his way towards me.

“It’s so goo to see you,” I said.

“You too, however I thought you would still be catching up with your mother.” He scrunched his eyebrows together.

I nodded, “yeah I wish I could, but you and she were kind of part of the bargain for the Eligius people to help us open the bunker.” I stopped talking when I saw that Jackson looked even more confused now. “Their crew is apparently sick with something and they need medical assistance, so you and my mom are being sent to their mothership that is in space where you will provide their crew with whatever needs they might have.”

He nodded slowly as if he was taking it all in. “Alright let me just go grab a medical bag.”

“No need, my mom is doing that right now, say goodbye to Miller for now and go to the dropship outside.” I didn’t hesitate after that to turn around and leave in search of my mother so she could go meet the girls.

I ran down the hall once again in direction of the med bay. My feet carried me so fast that I could barely make out what was before me, which is how I ended up slamming into my mom’s back. “Ughh,” I groaned at the pain the collision caused.

My mom turned around to look at me smiling, “honey I know we’re in a hurry, but you need to be careful. Now let’s go meet those girls!” She had her bag in one hand and Jackson’s in the other.

I grabbed Jackson’s bag and pulled her with the other hand in the direction of the hole in the roof.

I climbed the stairs and noticed the girls were only a few steps in front of. I took Aurora from Madi and began to greet them in silence so I wouldn’t bother the rest of our friends.

That’s when I noticed Aurora was unusually quiet and wouldn’t stop staring at something past Madi. So, I looked up to see what had her so distracted only to see Bellamy and Echo in a deep embrace.

“Hey Aurora, Madi how about you girls go down there to meet Grandma Abby?” While I had never outright told the girls that I was in love with Bellamy and that he was in fact Aurora’s dad, I was however convinced that Madi had already deducted this.

I turned back around and climbed down the stairs attempting to hide just how much that embrace hurt me. 

I then helped Madi and Aurora down and introduced them to my mom. “Mom, this is Madi and this is Aurora. Girls this is my mom,” I said pointing to each of them as I introduced them.

My mom didn’t waste a second before she pulled the girls into a tight embrace.

“Uhh, Granma Abby is it true that single handedly saved Chancellor Jaha’s life, after Bellamy shot him?” Madi asked immediately. I smiled knowing that my family was finally normalizing despite the many secrets I had yet to share.

My mom then began to have a chat with the girls, and I couldn’t help, but zone out to think about the encounter I had just had with Bellamy.

Gosh! What did I expect? For him to stay celibate for the last few years even though he believed I was dead. No, it was not fair of me to expect that of him, but gosh why was the world so against me? I needed him, I always had. From the moment that we had set foot on the ground he had been my confidant, best friend, lover, enemy, greatest opponent and supporter. How was she supposed to live around him and Echo? How was I supposed to move on from the guy who I had decided was worth my everything?

I don’t know how, but I came to terms with my reality in the time my mom spoke to the girls, which was really a total of three minutes seeing as how Diyoza was already there demanding that they leave.

I had no choice but to move on with my life, get over myself and think of my girls’ wellbeing above all else. Yes, I loved Bellamy, but he was in a relationship and I was not going to ruin that for him no matter how much pain and suffering that caused me.

I had been in such a deep train of thought that I had not noticed Bellamy, Echo, and our other friends inside the bunker even as I helped my mom climb the stairs.

“I love you Clarke, girls. Make sure you guys take good care of each other and I can not wait to finish up there so I can come back to you girls.”

“I love you too mom, take care of yourself and of Jackson.” From where we stood at the bottom of the bunker, I couldn’t really make out her features any more as the sun would barely allow me to look up, however I could tell she was waving at us.

Albeit it had been a short amount of time but seeing my mom again after six years had been a true and wonderful gift.

“Hey Clarke!” Harper said drawing my attention back to the people who’d just entered the bunker.

“Harper! Monty!” I put Aurora down and went to hug them each. “I am so happy to see you guys.”

“Hey, we’re happy to see you, we’ve been dying to thank you,” Monty said, “if you hadn’t risked your life like you did all those years ago, we wouldn’t be here. So, we are forever in your debt Clarke.”

“I guess I know who’s going to be babysitting whenever I need help,” I said half-jokingly.

Harper and Monty laughed. I then went to greet Emori who had barely made a sound since I had regained consciousness.

“Thanks’ Clarke,” Emori said barely audibly. I realized I owed her an apology still for almost forcing her in the radiation chamber.

“You guys have nothing to thank me for, I would do it without question if it meant you guys would get to live, in fact Emori, I hope you can accept my apology. My mom and I should have never attempted to inject you with nightblood to see if it was resistant to radiation.”

“It’s all forgiven,” she said with a half-smile that allowed for me to breath.

“What are you guys waiting for, let’s go help the people who want to sleep outside set up their tents,” Miller said hauling our group out of the bunker once more.

**Bellamy’s POV**

I had replaced Miller in taking care of Octavia so he could go help set up camp with everyone else.

“Bellamy?” Octavia called from her bed. I turned my head sideways to see her and could see her walking towards me.

“Yes O.”

“Wow, that’s the first time I’ve heard that nickname in a long time.”

I turned around as she reached for me and hugged her. “I still don’t quite belief that you’re actually here you know…”

“It’s okay, everything is going to be alright.”

“No… Bell, so many things happened I don’t blame those people that want to replace me, in fact I hope they do so soon. I am so tired of the burden that comes with being the commander. I truly hope that someone steps up to take responsibility.” She was now crying into my shoulder.

“Shh. It’s going to be alright.” I tried to console her by humming to her some of the songs that I had sang to her back on the ark.

“I wish I could go back to when we first arrived here you know, when Lincoln was still alive. I wish things with the grounders and the mountain men had gone differently, maybe then we wouldn’t be here in this situation.” She snuggled into my shirt hiding her face completely from my sight, although I could feel my dampening as her tears did not cease.

“Shh, O there’s no point in holding out to what could have been. Instead let’s look at the positive turn of events.”

I know that’s what I told her, but I didn’t really feel that way on the inside, because on the inside I was raging mad that while my sister had been suffering in this god forsaken hole in the ground, I had been living a semi-happy life in the ring. The only downside being mourning Clarke and having to eat algae every day for six years of course.

I couldn’t in fact offer much consolation seeing as I obviously held resentment towards myself for leaving Clarke behind, no matter how many times she told me it had been her choice. I wondered if she and I would be raising her daughters together if I had stayed. Would I have minded raising another mans child as my own? No, I don’t think so.

I held Octavia tightly until she stopped crying that’s when we decided to go outside and face the music. 

As we reached the entryway though I could see Gaia commanding Madi and a young boy to fight using wooden swords. I didn’t think Clarke would have allowed this, so I set out to find her with my eyes only to see her being restrained by two big guys.

“She’s just a child!” Clarke cried as she attempted to get out of the men’s grasps. The man to her left then jabbed his elbow into her side where if I remembered correctly, she had fallen when McCreary had thrown her down the village’s church steps. Clarke cried in pain distracting Madi who had been fighting perfectly until then turned to look at her mother when she heard her pained cry. That moment of distraction was all it took for the boy to attack her.

“No! No! Please Octavia tell them to stop.” Clarke pleaded when she saw us.

Octavia raised her hands and immediately called an end to the duel. “What is this?” she asked, “I did not order this, so you better explain what the hell is going on.”

Gaia, whose eyes were as cold as ever, stepped forward. “I commanded that they train. I am trying to find a new novitiate to take on the flame.”

“But Clarke and I already told you, the only reason why I have nightblood is because she injected me with her bone marrow so I would survive out there,” Madi said pressing on the small cut that the wooden sword had caused.

“I don’t believe that story for a second because it makes no sense. For starters, how did you survive long enough for her to find you?” Gaia pushed her face looking serious and a bit crazed.

“I already told you the death wave didn’t affect the valley the same way it affected the rest of the world. The people of my village didn’t all die at once, it was over the span of a few months, I was dying when Clarke found me and it is truly a mystery how it is that the nightblood bone marrow transfusion was able to function after I had so much exposure to radiation. It is only thanks to my mom that I am alive today.” Madi’s response seemed to placate the majority of the people who’d been screaming that she should take up the flame and become commander, however Gaia didn’t look convinced at all she just didn’t yet have any proof.

“Gaia what in the world is going on and don’t you dare ignore me, because no matter how much it displeases you. I am still commander seeing as I won the conclave six years ago,” Octavia demanded.

I looked at Clarke wondering who had Aurora when I saw the little girl crying in Harper’s arms. Harper and Monty seemed to be trying to cheer her up, but she, like her mother struggled to get out of their grip.

“Commander, we realize that six years ago when we agreed to that conclave we were desperate…” Gaia stopped for a second before she sighed, “we also understand that you have tried your absolute best to provide a safe passage to the people of Wonkru throughout these long hard years, but I feel as the flamekeeper that it is my job to find the next commander and when I heard that Madi here was a nightblood and… well her story just doesn’t add up.” Gaia was trying to reason with Octavia. She was trying to solve multiple problems that had been plaguing the people.

The first their serious hatred towards Octavia and Skaikru, the second their deep-rooted belief that only nightbloods could be commanders because they could carry the flame.

Indra stood stoic as ever to one side intently watching as her daughter questioned the girl she had come to love as a daughter.

That’s when the little blue-eyed princess escaped from Monty and Harper’s hold by kicking. She ran to the center of the pit and grabbed Madi’s hand.

“Whas goin on Madi?” she asked in a loud whisper.

“Shhh,” Madi responded.

Clarke fought harder to escape, and I decided to help my friend who was in need.

“Gaia, Clarke has always had our people’s best interest. Why would she lie about something so trivial as her daughter being born a nightblood?” I asked praying that Clarke hadn’t lied, because so help me God Gaia would definitely find out.

“Any mother would if they feared for their child’s life,” Indra said breaking her silence.

“Nightblood?” asked Aurora in giggles, Madi tried to shush her again, but the little girl just laughed and said, “I was born a nightblood!”

Clarke broke free and practically ran down the steps and into the pit. She quickly picked up Aurora and grabbed Madi’s hand. “They are both children…” Clarke sounded so heartbroken and beaten, “my children. And nobody here is going to force some flame upon them just so that Octavia can get relieved of her burden and you all finally get rid of the unwelcomed commander.”

Clarke then tried to exit the pit dragging the girls, but some of the Wonkru soldiers trapped her so she couldn’t continue walking.

“Let her go!” I said walking towards where they stood. When they didn’t, I turned to Octavia knowing that the guards answered to her.

“Let her go!” Octavia repeated in a demanding voice.

“We do not answer to you anymore Octavia kon Skaikru. There are two rightful heirs to the head title and your reign is over,” responded one of the guards, then he signaled someone behind me, and they took Octavia prisoner. “Flamekeeper what shall we do with the mother and the ex-commander?”

Gaia’s face was twisted with jealousy, and anger, “take the mother to the prison for lying to a servant of the true faith, and as for the ex-commander I sentence her to death at the stake for betraying her vows to her people.”

That’s when the world around me crashed. Clarke was being taken to jail and my little sister sentenced to a painfilled death. No, I wouldn’t allow it. I couldn’t.

The crowd’s majority cheered, and I realized that if I was going to act, I had to do it fast, otherwise my sister, and Clarke would be in danger.

“People of Wonkru!” I yelled causing a sudden silence to uproar. “I know that you feel that these two women have wronged you, but they were only protecting these two young girls.” The people began to shout obscenities at me, I raised up my hand signaling I wasn’t done. “I have a proposition for you, you let Octavia kon Skaikru and Clarke live freely in exchange Madi and Aurora will both begin to prepare to take on the flame under Gaia’s instruction. However, since Madi is older she will take on the flame now so long as a council with the representatives and trustees of our new head is formed.”

Clarke struggled against the guy holding her and I knew she probably wanted to strangle me to death, but I was looking after her and Octavia.

“Why should we do that?” Gaia asked, “we can just follow through with the sentences and still take the girls and train them.”

I was about to answer when Madi took over, “because if you imprison our mom and kill our aunt why would we ever do anything for you?”

Did she say aunt? Did she mean aunt like a family friend who is like an aunt or aunt as in a real relative?

“Afterall I’ve always known that Aurora’s father is Bellamy and I too have come to see him as that from Clarke’s stories these past six years.”

Clarke ceased to struggle in the man’s hold. She directed her eyes to me in fear and I knew then that Madi had spoken the truth and I felt something snap within me as a pain wedged itself deeply in my heart.


	6. Chapter 6: Miscommunications, Lies, and the Secrets We Like to Keep Hidden

Chapter 6: Miscommunications, Lies, and the Secrets We Like to Keep Hidden

**Clarke’s POV**

To say today couldn’t have been the worst day of my life was a lie, and trust I’ve had a great number of worst days of my life. The day when I decided that the best course of action for peace with the grounders after Fin’s attack was to end his life myself, or the day I chose my people over the people of Mt. Weather, then I truly believed there couldn’t possibly be a worst day than this, then I met Lexa and felt like maybe life was once again on the mend only to lose her forever. As in my short life, I hadn’t already been dealt enough then A.L.I.E became known to us and by association the second apocalypse.

Then after six years of peace, quiet, and absolute bliss everything erupted and blew up in my face all over again. I had started the day with a plan to free our people, only for that to backfire at me. When the riots started, as I helped my friends set up camp, I had a feeling of forlorn, but never did I once think that Gaia would stoop so low as to challenge my daughter to a duel with one of her non-nightblood novitiates.

To make matters worse Aurora had apparently forgotten that we had to keep it a secret that both she and Madi were born nightbloods. It was at that moment when the guards held me back and I watched both my daughters reveal themselves that I felt an energy jolt through me helping me free myself and rush to my daughters’ side.

“They are both children…” I said after I had picked up Aurora from the floor, “my children. And nobody here is going to force some flame upon them just so that Octavia can get relieved of her burden and you all finally get rid of the unwelcomed commander.”

I could feel the whole room’s gaze on me and felt like an ant about to be squashed my somebody’s foot. I held Madi and Aurora tightly and tried to flee the room, however, Gaia ordered the guards to stop me and contain me once more.

My ears were ringing I could not here whatever Bellamy, Octavia, or Gaia were saying and then I felt Madi shift her body away from me slightly to look at the scene that’s when I finally heard Bellamy’s words, “I have a proposition for you, you let Octavia _kom Skaikru_ and Clarke live freely in exchange Madi and Aurora will both begin to prepare to take on the flame under Gaia’s instruction. However, since Madi is older she will take on the flame now so long as a council with the representatives and trustees of our new _heda_ is formed.”

My eyes widened in horror and I struggled against the guard with more intensity than before. I couldn’t speak for they had already gagged me; all I could do was hold on to my girls as I tried to free myself.

How could Bellamy even consider that an option? Couldn’t he see that if Octavia who was already an adult could barely handle the pressure Madi and Aurora would surely crash? What about their childhood? Which would be no more, their time filled with training to understand the flame and battle strategy, Plus, the grounders would probably want the title, of _heda_ , to be won via a conclave which would place the sisters at opposing sides and I just couldn’t let that happen.

“Why should we do that?” Gaia asked, “we can just follow through with the sentences and still take the girls and train them.”

“Because if you imprison our mom and kill our aunt why would we ever do anything for you?” Madi’s words sounded loud and clear in my ears and I felt like the world was spinning in circles. “Afterall I’ve always known that Aurora’s father is Bellamy and I too have come to see him as that from Clarke’s stories these past six years.”

Then finally it stopped, and I felt a burden lift, while the guilt set in. I turned to glance at Bellamy and attempted to convey my apologetics with my eyes. He looked at me with cold eyes and a clenched jaw and I knew then and there that when this passed, we would be still deeply troubled.

After Madi’s little outburst Octavia and I were temporarily placed in the containment chamber, to wait for the final verdict. I was tied to a pole tightly so I couldn’t move much, and Octavia was placed on the other side of the room.

“I don’t blame you,” Octavia muttered from where she stood, “I understand why you felt it necessary to hide the fact that they were nightbloods.”

From the corner of my eye, I could see her attempting to look at me. She had apparently been beaten at some point in the trajectory from the pit to this chamber because her face was smeared in blood and her arm seemed to be bruising.

“What I don’t really understand is why you kept it a secret from Bellamy… I mean you guys have been a team since a few days after our arrival here. You always told each other things straight and figured things out together.” She took a moment to breathe before she continued, “I mean towards the time of Praimfaya I even envied you a bit.”

“Envied me? Why? O, Bellamy loves and thinks about you before anything else. He is always concerned for your safety. I mean I don’t want to point fingers, but apart from the solution he gave back there, he could have easily suggested that you continue to hold the commander mantle until things were settled and there could be a new government set in place, but instead, he sought out to keep you safe and take away the burden that you’ve carried in the last six years and by doing he jeopardized the safety of my daughters.” I turned my head away from her and let out the tears I had been holding back all day.

Octavia stayed silent before she took a deep breath and spoke, “that’s exactly my point. Maybe if you’d just told him the entire truth we wouldn’t be here right now, but as for your plan of government it wouldn’t have worked.”

“Why not?” I responded aggravatedly.

“Because Clarke I’ve had to use methods of violence just to keep these people for this long. I had to create strict punishments for people who disobeyed me. These people hate me! I made sure of that, and as such, they’ve just been waiting for the right moment to strike.” She took a minute before she continued, “Gaia is so centered in her faith, that she has done nothing but rile up the opposition this last year.”

“I am sorry Octavia…” I said sincerely, “However, I cannot help but think that this is your problem, not mine or my daughters. They should have never been involved and Bellamy is as much to blame for that as Gaia.”

I was angry. I was betrayed. I felt like I had all those years ago in Mt. Weather… Alone. I didn’t care if I sounded selfish. I certainly didn’t give a dam what Octavia thought of me. I was a mother above all else and no one put my kids in danger without feeling my rage.

Bellamy was Aurora’s father, he was supposed to look after her, to protect her and instead, he was partially to blame for this newfound threat. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t known that she was his daughter, all that mattered was that she and her sister were people who needed his protection, people I had trusted him blindly to protect.

I had filled the girl’s heads with stories about Bellamy, my hero. They loved him, and yet he had chosen his responsibility to his sister over them.

I heard the chamber’s door open but refused to turn around. “How could you Clarke,” Bellamy said from the doorframe.

I didn’t bother to respond and chose to instead glare at the pole that I was currently tied to.

“Answer me! Dammit!” He said stepping forward.

“I have nothing to talk to you about Bellamy,” I said, mustering the coldest voice I could.

“Well, I think you do! How about we start with, why didn’t you tell me?” He said loudly.

I sighed and closed my eyes before choosing to answer, “how about I didn’t know how to tell you or when would be a right time?” I stayed silent before continuing. “I didn’t feel it right to tell you yesterday when there was a feeling of impending doom in my stomach, and I certainly didn’t think it was appropriate to share it with you while you embraced and kissed Echo this afternoon.”

I could see his shadow relax slightly before he spoke, “Clarke when we talked yesterday this should have been the first thing you told me!” He began to walk back and forth. “I mean, don’t you at least think I have a right to know I have a daughter.”

“You weren’t here! You haven’t been here in her life at all, heck! You’ve known her for two days and didn’t even realize it when she looks and acts exactly like you. I bet you’ve been telling yourself that I probably slept with some other guy after we slept together.” I was practically screaming now, “we agreed that morning that we would talk about our relationship after Praimfaya, but that didn’t mean I didn’t already love you and had committed myself to you. Hell, Bellamy, you’re the only guy I’ve been with since Finn so I don’t even know how you couldn’t have seen how clear it was that she is yours.”

Bellamy apparently didn’t take kindly to my words because he didn’t respond and instead walked out of the chamber, locking it without even a word.

I felt my knees weaken and I fell to the floor as I cried at the pain.

“I am sorry Clarke,” Octavia muttered.

“It’s not your fault O. It’s not your fault…”

Bellamy and I had too many unresolved issues, lies, and misunderstandings. Too many years apart that had created an infinite wedge in our relationship, we weren’t the same people we’d been six years ago. That’s for sure.

**Bellamy’s POV**

I had expected Clarke’s indignation, I had put our daughters’ lives in danger in her eyes, but couldn’t she see that this was the best course of action. Yes, Madi would hold the flame and with that the commander title, but it would be in name only she would have a council behind her to guide her every step. Yes, both she and Aurora would have to start training to fight each other in the conclave, but we had time to find a way to avoid a conclave.

I could see that when it came to her children, Clarke’s mind was clouded. She would act recklessly if it meant she kept them safe. Maybe I was the kind of parent that makes bad decisions for their children, but I can’t see how having my judgment clouded helped to make it any better.

When I went to the containment chamber I was not in the right state of mind. I had so much pent up frustration and anger. My best friend who I had just gotten back had hurt me in the worst way possible.

I mean, Clarke knew that I had always held resentment towards my father since he was never in the picture. I had always sworn that if and when I had children, I would be there to support them in every single moment. Granted it wasn’t within her power to tell me while I was in space, but I felt that the moment I landed and saw her that should have been the first thing she told me.

Maybe I shouldn’t have gone to see her the moment I had made sure that Madi and Aurora were okay with Monty and Harper. I should have probably waited for the both of us to calm down before I confronted her.

I needed to apologize for the way I had treated her, but first I needed to deal with the words she had thrown at me knowing they’d hit too close for comfort.

“Bellamy, talk please, you're scaring me,” Echo said as she patted my back gently.

I sighed, “Echo, how am I supposed to not hold any anger that she kept the fact that I am a father from me?”

She looked forward and changed her facial expression to one I couldn’t quite make out. “I think you need to put yourself in her shoes Bell.”

“I am trying, I am seriously trying, but I just can’t imagine knowing something that important and keeping it from somebody I supposedly care about.” I shook my head as my eyes watered.

Echo turned her head down before she spoke again, “think of it like this, you guys liked each other before Praimfaya and agreed that when everything had passed you would discuss getting involved in a committed relationship, however, things happened the way they did and she sacrificed herself so that you and the rest of us could live. When she realized she was pregnant it was too late to tell you, she did everything by herself for those six years Bell!”

“Don’t you think I know that. Neither of us could change the way things happened then, but she had so many chances to tell me since we returned.”

Echo then stood up, apparently, everyone could see something I couldn’t because she was very determined to make me understand.

“Bellamy you don’t just spring on someone you haven’t seen in six years that they have a child with you. She probably wanted to give you time to settle before she sprang the news on you, plus we probably made her feel a bit uncomfortable this afternoon when Monty and the others arrived.”

I was beginning to understand but still felt like things would have turned out better if I had known.

“I am going to go check on the girls, I might not have been in their lives for the past six years, but I am going to make up for that now.” I left without waiting for a response from Echo.

Monty and Harper’s temporary room was right beside ours, so I only had to walk a few steps before I had a clear view of the two girls that had led to this discussion. I noticed Aurora was still crying helplessly and decided to stay silent hoping to listen to what Monty and Harper were telling them to cheer them both up.

“Why didn’t…mommy…tell me though,” she said between sobs and hiccups.

I felt my heart constrict, I hadn’t thought about that at all, Clarke had not told Aurora I was her father either. My guess is Madi had somehow come to the realization using basic context clues based on everything Clarke told her.

“Your mommy wanted to first get to talk to Bellamy, so they would get to tell you together,” Harper said softly taking the little girl’s hands into her own.

Monty smiled sadly at Madi who was scrunching her eyebrows together. “This is all my fault,” she said a small tear fell from her eyes.

“No, no honey! That’s not true and you know Clarke would never believe that,” Monty said taking her into his arms so she could place her head on his shoulder.

“But if I hadn’t said anything then Bellamy would still not know, and Clarke would have told him when she felt ready, and then they would have told Aurora together.”

“But if you did that, then Bellamy’s sister would be burning at the stake right now. Madi, you did the right thing,” Harper said picking Aurora up.

I realized that Harper and Monty were taking the brunt of something that was mine and Clarke’s responsibility, so I let them know I was here by knocking on the wall.

“Bellamy come here, I think you need to have a chat with these pretty princesses,” Monty said as he let go of Madi. I nodded in response and watched carefully as Harper placed Aurora on the bed before she took Monty’s hand and they both left the room.

I took a moment to observe the state of being in which each girl found herself. Madi was, by all means, holding her feelings in like a champ now, she had red eyes which pointed obviously to the tears she had shed but otherwise held herself like the warrior Clarke had raised her to be. Right now, in her eyes, I was not trusted.

On the other hand, Aurora looked like she was about to fall off a cliff. She like her sister had red eyes, except hers were swollen and told a story about how deeply this had hurt her. She still had tears streaming silently and well she looked at me like I was the greatest thing she could have ever imagined and more.

I kneeled in front of where she sat and patted the space next to her at Madi. Technically my daughter was Aurora, but Madi had said I had too become her father through Clarke’s stories, and as such, I would be her father. Madi followed my instructions and took a seat beside her sister.

“I want to apologize to both of you,” I said gently.

Madi looked confused, but Aurora didn’t seem to really understand what I had just said.

“You have nothing to apologize for Bellamy,” Madi whispered, “I do.” She looked

“Hey, no none of that. You heard what Monty said and I know your mom and I agree with that.” I took one of her hands and one of Aurora’s. “Madi, you did the right thing. Clarke and I…” I sighed unable to say what exactly was going on in my mind, “she and I have too many misunderstandings between us and it is only thanks to what you did that we will be able to overcome them.”

“But she wasn’t ready for you or Aurora to know yet,” she continued.

“Yeah, but you didn’t say anything with the intent of hurting anybody, quite the opposite. You did it to save your aunt and that is what our family has always been known for. Yes, we make tough decisions when we need to take care of those we care about and that’s what you did.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, “that’s what I did when I said to begin training you girls. Trust me even without knowing you were mine I would have never suggested that unless I truly believed it was the only way for all of us to get out of this as unscathed as possible, however, Clarke said something very important to me and that is that as a father I failed to protect you.”

“But we’re fine daddy!” Aurora who had stopped crying said.

“Yeah, but I didn’t put your wellbeing as a first when I made that suggestion and that’s what a parent does. They think of what’s best for their children and then they think about others.” I noticed that Madi was looking at me with a smile plastered on her face and I couldn’t help the joy that surged knowing that even though she didn’t trust me she still believed that the man her mom had told her stories about was in there waiting to resurge.

“Alright, Bellamy please tell me what we’re going to do about Clarke and Aunt Octavia,” Madi asked in an upbeat tone.

I looked at her noticing that she didn’t want us to dwell too much more on what had happened and instead wanted to focus on how we were going to get Clarke and Octavia out of containment.

“Bellamy!” Echo called out in the hall.

“Just a second,” I said wanting to finish the conversation with my girls before we went off to decide how we were going to get out of this place soon. “Madi about that, let’s first see what Gaia and the others want, if it is something we can agree to like the things we’ve already discussed then we will go with their plan, however, if they insist in keeping them contained I will have no choice but to help them escape and we’ll all flee to the valley.”

She nodded with a small smile she stood up and clutched her sister’s hand.

“Come here, girls!” I said opening my arms so that we can indulge in a much-needed hug.

“I love you, daddy!” Aurora said as Madi and I helped her into the hug.

“I love you both as well,” I said laughing as Madi made a comment about how she didn’t think I’d be as mushy as Clarke.

This was truly the life, now if only I could free my sister and Clarke everything would finally be heading in the right direction.

**Raven’s POV**

The dropship had just landed in the docking area when I went to greet them hoping that they’d be willing to take Murphy and I straight down. After all, our people had kept their part in the deal.

However, when the gates opened, I was surprised to see Abby and Jackson gagged with their hands tied behind their backs.

Ok so maybe negotiations hadn’t gone as well as Monty had told me over the radio comm.

“Grab those intruders!” Diyoza ordered.

I turned to Murphy who was right behind me and yelled, “Murphy run!”


	7. Chapter 7: Plans of Escape and Survival

Chapter 7: Plans of Escape and Survival

**Clarke’s POV**

It didn’t take long for Octavia and I to be once again visited by Bellamy.

“Come here to try and guilt trip me once more?” I asked in a sarcastic tone the moment I heard him enter through the door. I didn’t need to see him or hear his voice to know it was him. Bellamy has never been like anyone else to me. I could always tell it was him just on his footsteps and the essence that seemed to fill the room whenever he was present, and while many things changed in the last six years, he is still very much the person that I fell in love with.

He sighed before responding to my angry banter, “no, not really. I want to apologize for my outburst earlier.”

I tensed knowing that I could stay angry with an obnoxious Bellamy, but never with his gentler more in control self.

“I should have taken the time to put my self in your shoes and realize just how difficult things have been for you these last few years. But Clarke I want you to know that I am here for you… We share this responsibility. Both of them.”

I widened my eyes, did he say, “ _both of them_ ”?

“I am going to do everything in my power for our entire family to escape from this madness as unscathed as possible, and while I know you don’t think Madi should take the flame or that they should both begin training, you know it’s the only way for that to happen,” he said not truly surprising me that he hadn’t changed his mind despite calling both girls his.

I shook my head slowly, “Bellamy! Please I am begging you to think of another plan. I’ll do anything so that Madi and Aurora can have as normal a childhood as possible under our circumstances. If that means that I have to take up the flame so be it. I don’t care, but they need to be free.” I was practically begging him to think of another way even though I knew why I couldn’t take the flame.

“Clarke remember they all know that you were not born a Nightblood and as such have been disqualified to carry the flame in accordance with their faith. Or did you forget why Octavia had to fight in the conclave to become commander.”

“How dare you?” My voice cracked, “you know I remember those days perfectly fine, I know why they won’t consider me for it, but please do something to convince them that their way out of this hell isn’t by placing little girls as _Heda_.”

I felt Bellamy’s intense glare on my back when he responded, “I will do what I can, Clarke.” He turned around and began to walk out of the chamber. When he was at the door he stopped and spoke, “I will not promise anything in regard to the flame. What I do promise is that tonight the both of you will be free and save along with the rest of our family, however that may be is yet to be found out. I am going to go meet with Gaia and the council right now. In the meantime, Harper has brought a few visitors who’ve been anxiously waiting to see you.”

After that Bellamy walked out and in came three familiar sets of footsteps.

“Thank you so much, Harper,” I whispered as I turned my face as much as I could to see my little girls behind me, both wearing innocent and excited looks although they both had evidence of heavy crying a while ago.

“Mommy, you won’t believe this did you know that Daddy’s mom was also called Aurora?”

“Of course I did, I named you to honor her,” I replied with a smile remembering that I had decided that if the baby was a boy I would name him after my father and if it was a girl it’d be Bellamy’s mom.

“And honor her you have!” Octavia said with a hint of laughter in her voice.

“What does that mean Aunt Octavia?” Madi asked in a shyer tone than was normal for her.

“What I mean is my mother would have been honored to know that she had two beautiful warrior granddaughters.”

We all laughed at the girls’ obvious blush, and I couldn’t wait to get out of these restraints so that I could properly enjoy my entire family.

“Clarke!” Madi said to draw me out of my trace of thought.

“Yes, Madi.”

“I have decided that I am going to take the flame,” she moved slightly behind me and I took a deep breath trying to control my self from killing Bellamy and Gaia for placing those ideas in her head. “It’s not Bellamy’s or any one’s decision, but mine. I want to do this. I want us to return to shadow valley and the only way Wonkru will do it is under a new leader.”

“Are you sure about this Madi?” I asked heartbrokenly. I’d taken Madi under my wings when she was barely six years old. She already knew the basics of being a warrior, as any grounder child did at that age, however, Madi had in many occasions since acted free-spirited and careless, she’d enjoyed a freedom that I could have only dreamed of back on the Ark. She hadn’t had to defend herself anymore because I was now there to protect her and her sister. Apparently, I had also passed down to her the same independent spirit that had shaped my life to be the way it had.

I wouldn’t be able to stop her, just like my mom hadn’t been able to stop me all those years ago. If I wanted her to count me in I had to give her my support and hope that the council placed to guide her would always take her best interest into heart before condemning her to the dangers this world has to offer.

I closed my eyes, trying to avoid comparing Madi to Lexa. Praying and hoping that Madi’s life was much more extensive and freeing than Lexa’s had been.

“Ok, Madi,” I whispered. She ran to me and hugged me as much as she could. I felt the wetness of her tears on my shirt and broke down into tears as well. Soon enough Aurora too had joined in the hug and I wished I could keep them there close to me forever but sighed knowing that each person has a path that they must follow and Madi was just starting out on hers.

“I love you… Mom,” Madi whispered.

I felt a jolt of energy similar to the one that had overcome me in the pit when Madi and Aurora had been in danger and smiled knowing that I had done the right thing. Now it was up to Bellamy to convince Gaia and the council to only put Madi as Heda in name only. Not because I didn’t think she couldn’t take on the pressure, but because I am her mother and it is my responsibility to secure my child the chance to discover herself and the world without the added burden of caring for the human race. I’d had to grow up and do that and no matter what I wouldn’t put my daughter in the position to have to make choices like the ones I had to make in order for my people to survive.

“I love you both, beyond your understanding.”

**Bellamy’s POV**

After I’d spoken to the girls, I visited Clarke with them and Harper. I knew that the council was waiting for me, but I wanted the girls and Clarke to have peace and see each other again before our lives changed again in such a short period of time.

After I promised her, I’d get our family out safely, I went to the meeting that Echo had come to warn me about earlier and took the seat beside her.

She placed her hand on my thigh to help calm my nerves and slowly moved her index finger over my knee.

“Bellamy!” Gaia called disrupting the trace I was in with Echo’s gentle tickling.

“Yes!” I said looking straight into her eyes. Her eyes were cloudy, they looked guilty and apologetic. I couldn’t quite pinpoint if I was going to like where this meeting would go or not.

“We have decided to propose that Madi takes the flame, tonight.” She sighed and I could see whatever came next weighed heavy on her, “and also we have decided to allow Madi to chose people to serve as her council so that they make the decisions and she is Heda only in name, from the people Madi chooses the people will vote six people to keep, the rest will have to refrain from council meetings.”

I smiled, this was perfect it was just what I wanted, Madi would still be free to enjoy her life and our people would start to get a feel at democratically elected government officials once more.

“What about my sister and Clarke?” I asked knowing that they were still not secure.

“Once we have gone through the ceremony of ascension, we will set the former Commander and Clarke _kom Skaikru_ free. It is likely that they will be also involved in the council since both women have much experience in leading.”

That surprised me, not because of setting them free so easily, but because they’d be ok with them having government jobs after they’d placed them in containment.

“A mother who fights for her young and her people as Clarke has done is an asset, and a warrior who despite being a horrible commander knows when to make tough decisions and how to will also be a must if our people are to survive,” Indra said speaking for the first time since the meeting had commenced.

“If that is all, then I agree to these terms, however, Gaia you must promise me that my daughters will be free to interact with other children, they will be free to carry out simple lives, and while they should have guards to protect them when they are in either mine or Clarke’s presence then the guards must not intervene or even be near. We are still the girls’ parents and as such we have a duty to guide and reprimand her with love and care. If we think that this is getting out of hand then we have the right to remove the flame.”

Gaia wanted to protest, but Indra placed her hand on her shoulder signaling that this was the only offer she would get. “If push comes to shove, Clarke has agreed to take on the flame once more in order to serve our people and keep our family saves.”

“That will not be necessary!” Gaia replied quickly. “We will keep our end of the deal and not pressure either of the girls.”

I nodded, “then this meeting is adjourned. I will let Madi and Clarke know what is going on and you should go prepare for the ascension ceremony.”

I stood up and walked out closely followed by Echo and Monty who had also been in the meeting.

“Do you think Clarke will go with this?” Monty asked as we hurried down the stairs to the containment chamber.

“She will,” I replied, knowing that Clarke understood me now, “she knows this is our best option, plus I threatened Gaia and Clarke will be pleased to know that Gaia ever gets out of hand on the tasks she gives the girls then we have a deal with witnesses that we have the right to end everything right there.”

**Raven’s POV**

“Through here Murphy!” I screamed running into a room immediately looking for a computer I could hack to lock the doors.

“What are you looking for?” Murphy asked breathing heavily.

“Something? Anything to hack the door and keep us locked in here!” I turned my back to the door a scanned every nook and corner of the room hoping to find some sort of control panel.

“Too late,” I heard Murphy whisper before a thud sounded across the room. I turned around to see him but instead encountered a fist right in the face.

I momentarily blacked out, but when I came to be mostly conscious, I noticed that my hands were tied and so were my feet. We’d also apparently been moved to a dark room because the only thing I could see was a slight light reflection behind me, “Let me go! You Bastards!”

“Raven! Shhh,” Murphy hissed. I looked to where his voice had come from only to find his shadow next to me in a similar position to mine.

“Don’t shush me! You’re not my mother!” I spat at him. I suppose he then glared at me back and I could almost imagine the smirk I know now adorned his ugly ass face.

“Good thing too because I’d have to thrown you overboard a long time ago if I had to deal with you annoying ass every day of my life!”

“Well too bad, you have dealt with me every day of your life for the past almost seven years, and let’s hope the future is kind to us, but by the looks of it we’re once again screwed up together.”

“Ha! Except I am awesome and you’re…”

“Shut up you two!” Abby yelled from somewhere in the room we were in.

“Abby?” I called out, “are you here?”

“No of course not!” Abby said sarcastically, “It’s not like I just told you to shut up or anything.”

“Where are we?” I asked.

“I am not sure.” she responded, “somewhere on the mothership. Also, Jackson was taken when you guys were brought in, probably to do whatever we were brought here to do.”

Abby had to stop talking when we heard the door from the light reflection was coming open and in walked Diyoza, “well it looks like Dr. Jackson needs your help to figure out the procedure, after all, Dr. Griffin. Take her!”

Then Abby was taken away as well, “Oh don’t worry too much about her and begin worrying bout your friends down there after all there. After all, they have nothing to convince me to not kill them anymore.”

Then she walked away and all I could do was cry at my inability to help Abby or our friends on the ground. We were all doomed and there was nothing any of us could do to change that.

**Clarke’s POV**

When Bellamy, Monty, and Echo joined us I wasn’t sure how to feel. I knew they were here to tell us what the verdict had been, but did I really want to know.

“Bellamy, what did the council and Gaia decide on?” Madi asked.

“You will take on the flame and serve as a symbol to the people, you will also choose some people you can trust and whom you believe that have the capacity and the qualities to form part of your council. However, from these people you chose the people will vote to keep six, the rest will not be in the council. However, if Clarke and I ever feel that Gaia or anyone is putting pressure on you then we have the right to remove the flame, in which scenario Clarke will take over.”

I smiled knowing Madi and Aurora would get to have the childhood we’d all dreamed of but lacked.

“Clarke and Octavia will be set free after the ascension ceremony.” Bellamy finished and I nodded to let him know that I acknowledged him.

“Madi!” I called out to her, “I wish I could go with you, but I know you are brave, strong, and courageous. Plus, I am trusting that Bellamy will accompany you during this. I love you with all of me baby girl.” I said prepared to let my little girl, began her own journey.


	8. Chapter 8: Long Ago Far Away Things I Almost Remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, guys, this is it for today! I hope to receive feedback from you guys. It's kind of bizarre how much this story has progressed since I began writing it last week. Just a heads up I am aiming for this to be a pretty long story so if you're into the fast-paced stuff, then this is not the story for you. Also, what did you all think of yesterday's episode?  
> I am kind of really pissed off! But whatever I am going to hope for some kind of surprise in the next three episodes that turns this nightmare around.  
> Love you guys.  
> Stay safe and Enjoy!  
> Emily1050

**Bellamy’s POV**

The ascension ceremony was well under way. The people had been told of the development and Madi had chosen in private who she wanted in her council.

I can not quite expect why, but I felt nervous, even if it wasn’t me who would be unconscious in order to have an AI installed in my head with retrievable data from “Commanders,” for more than a hundred years now. I realized that I was nervous for Madi; I was nervous for the danger she’d be in always no matter if there was a council truly making the decisions or not.

She’d be the ideal target for anyone who didn’t agree with a law or policy. She’d be excluded by other children her age, because no matter how much of a “normal” childhood Clarke and I wanted to give her, she would never be truly “normal.” What about when she fell in love or started a family of her own? Would she be fearful and belief love to be a weakness like Lexa had?

No, I couldn’t let them go through with this ceremony.

She deserves peace and whatever she wishes to do with her life. Maybe she wants to follow in her mother and grandmother’s footsteps and become a doctor, or maybe she is more like Raven into technology and stuff.

“Bellamy?” Madi asked beside me as my grip on her arm tightened subconsciously.

We were in what had been Octavia’s room, preparing Madi for the ceremony.

“Madi looks so pretty!” Aurora said giddily from where she was kneeling on the bed.

I decided to discuss my thoughts with Madi and give her the option out, that I should have given her from the beginning.

I kneeled in front of her so I could be at her eye level, not that Madi was short or anything, in fact she’s almost Clarke’s height, but still.

“Madi you can still opt out, you know?” I said in a hushed whisper, “you don’t have to do this, if you don’t want to sweetheart. I’ll find another way to get Clarke and Octavia out, but you don’t have to go through with this.”

I was practically begging her to resign, “I know I don’t have to Bellamy, but I want to.” She smiled after that and turned around so the attendant who’d just come in could finish giving her the final preparations.

“They grow up so fast, don’t they?”

I turned to look at Echo, who had just said that with a bizarre look. “How would either of us know? We’ve only known her for three days?”

She laughed, “I don’t know it just felt like the comedic thing to say!” I began to laugh as well at her random comedic commentary.

Aurora joined in on the laughter, although I could see she didn’t quite understand what Echo and I were laughing about.

“What has you guys laughing so much?” Monty asked walking with Harper and Emori.

“Oh nothing,” Echo replied with a smirk. Harper looked between us and shook her head like a mother who’d just caught her child doing something silly.

“Well I recommend you hurry those little bubble Blake buts of yours and get to the pit. According to Gaia it has received the necessary cleansing routines or whatnot,” Emori said.

Seeing Emori made me think to contact Raven and ask her when the Elysian people would be bringing her and Murphy down.

“Have any of you guys made contact with Murphy or Raven?” I asked out of curiosity.

Monty and Harper shook their heads, while Emori looked down as a wave of sadness overcame her face.

“I have tried but have not received a response although I’d chalk that up to John wanting to ignore me and make get worried.”

“Aunty Harper is it true that babies are delivered by storks?” Aurora randomly asked making all of us look at her weirdly. She apparently took our faces as a negative trigger, because she soon had tears form in her eyes as she ran out of the room.

I sighed, having a five-year-old child was proving to be a bigger challenge than I’d thought. “I wonder how Clarke does it. Alright you guys try to contact Raven and Murphy again, while I go chase my little scoundrel. Then I am going to drop Aurora off with you guys as I accompany Madi,” I said speed walking away, “apparently there needs to silence in order for the ceremony to be served correctly.

Finally, after a few seconds I began to run chasing the sound of crying until I found Aurora sitting in a corner dirtying her clothes as she looked down. I took a minute to assess the situation and though about how much she reminded me of Octavia at that age when she would beg to go outside or when she would ask questions and I’d turn her down.

“Aurora come on, don’t cry!” I said attempting to cheer her up. Instead of following my instructions she turned her body so that I could only see her back. I kneeled down so I could be closer to her, “sweetheart come on, we didn’t mean anything by our faces.”

She continued to ignore me, so I decided to pick her up and carry her as I calmed her down. That was something I had done many times with Octavia, it always helped calm her down, maybe Aurora would too.

The moment she was in my arms Aurora hid her face between my neck and shoulder so I couldn’t see her, but I could tell that she had stopped crying and was relaxing in my embrace. “All of us love you baby, and about your question, I think that you can ask again in a few years and your mom or I will probably share that secret with you.”

I began to walk in the direction of the radio room, where Monty and Harper had headed.

Aurora’s breathing evened out at some point during the walk, and I thought she’d fallen asleep, until I heard her speak again, “daddy?”

I was startled, “yes sweetheart?”

Aurora pushed her head back so she could look at his face, “are you and mommy going to be together now?” She had an excited look on her face, and I couldn’t help, but feel bad knowing that despite loving Clarke and wanting to raise our daughters together, I also owed Echo a lot. She’d been my rock when I was mourning, she’d nursed me back to mental stability.

No, I wouldn’t do that to her.

“I am with Echo sweetie; I like her a lot. Plus, I am sure that you’ll have a lot of fun with her.”

Aurora’s expression was crestfallen, “oh,” she whispered.

“I’ll always love your mom, though. Nothing will ever change that, but you know Clarke and I have been apart for a really long time and for us it is going to take some time to rediscover each other.”

I hoped that was the right thing to say to the little girl, it was then that she nodded before leaning her head down to rest on my shoulder once more.

I sped walked to the radio room and before the minute passed, I was staring at the horrified faces of Monty, Harper, and Emori.

I held Aurora tighter against me. “What’s wrong you guys?”

“They’ve been taken hostage,” Harper commented taking Monty’s hand into her own.

“What?” I asked in bewilderment. That couldn’t be Diyoza had stricken that deal with us, she’d keep it… right?

“Diyoza’s pilot, Shaw, replied via the comms when we were trying to reach Raven and Emori. He let us know that our friends are being held hostage, now that we have no leverage,” Monty said staring intently at the floor.

I thought about what we’d gotten ourselves into and decided to wait until Madi’s ascension, that way I could discuss a best course of action with Clarke. “Let’s wait until after Madi’s ceremony, once Clarke and Octavia are free, we can gather our team and discuss a solution.”

My answer apparently didn’t sit well with Emori, “Bellamy! They need our help right now! We don’t know what they are doing to them up there. They might not have until after the ceremony.”

I clenched my jaw before I spoke, “Emori, trust me they won’t hurt them. They are probably forcing Abby and Jackson to help heal them using Raven and Murphy as leverage.”

“They don’t need to do that Bellamy!” she yelled, “all they need to do is threaten Clarke and Abby will cooperate. Abby could care less about either Murphy or Raven.”

“Your wrong, Abby loves Raven like a daughter, and she will not allow anyone to move even a hair in her body.”

“Then what about Murphy?” Emori asked crossing her arms beneath her breast as she breathed heavily. “Oh, I get it, he doesn’t matter. Somehow he will survive right!”

“I never said that Emori, and please lower your voice, nobody else needs to be made aware of our current situation. As for Murphy…” I sighed, “Raven won’t let them do anything to him, plus he’s a cockroach, it’ll take more than a change of plans to kill him.”

I noticed then how defeated she was, she had left him behind on bad terms and would never get to reconcile if Diyoza and her people decided to hurt Murphy and Raven.

The horn announcing the commencement of the ascension ceremony rang, and I grit my teeth. “Aurora, I am going to leave you here with uncle Monty, aunt Harper, and aunt Emori, ok?”

She nodded with a small smile, “I am going to go help out Madi with this ceremony, and in the meantime how about you show your uncles a new game?”

“Ooooh Let me show you my favorite!” She exclaimed excitedly.

Harper came forward and lifted Aurora out of my arms and unto the floor, “what’s it called?” I turned around with a slight chuckle when I heard her exclaim “I Spy!”

Finding Madi was not really difficult after all she was once again in Octavia’s chamber practically biting her nails off at how nervous she was.

“You can still renounce, Madi.”

“I want to do it,” she repeated; however, she didn’t stop her nervous pacing.

“Then what can I do to help you relax?” I asked sitting on the bed. She stopped moving and looked at me straight as if wondering if I was tricking her or not.

“Can you lay down on the bed with me and tell me a story…” She stopped herself from continuing and I smiled, “Clarke always said that Octavia always said how good of a storyteller you were.”

I took my boots off and moved myself until my back hit the headboard, then I patted the space next to me and smiled, “It’ll have to be a short story because I know Gaia is coming to get you soon.”

She came and laid in the space I had just patted. She smiled at me in acknowledgement of my statement.

“All right close your eyes, and take a deep breath,” I said in a calm and relaxed tone, “now imagine a time when the most revolutionary invention was ships.” I could see her begin to relax and continued, “on one of these ships there was a family of adventurers. The mom was a beautiful lady with brown wavy hair, the dad wore his monocle always, and the little newborn baby boy had the brightest blue eyes.” 

That’s how I began to tell her the story of Tarzan. A story I felt impacted her in a way no other she’d ever heard could.

I was pushing it when the story came to an end and in walked Gaia with her assistant demanding that Madi go with them.

“ _Nontu?” (_ father) Madi asked as she was taken away. I walked behind her, and she calmed.

“ _Ai laik hir Madi_ ,” (I am here, Madi) I responded in Tridgedasleng _._ We were approaching the pit fast and I noticed that the room looked very different than it had the last time he’d been in it. For one it was clean and there was a makeshift bed in the center.

“ _Heda ge ona!”_ (Heda get ton) Gaia said pointing to the bed. Madi nodded and got on. She then signaled for me to hold her hand and when I did, she whispered.

 _“ai hod yu in Nontu”_ (I love father).

“ _Ai hod yu in seintaim Madi,” (_ I love you too, Madi).

“Let us begin!” Gaia said as she injected something into Madi. I tensed when my daughter’s grip on my hand loosened, “it’s a sedative, she will feel nothing, and once she comes to, she will be _Heda Madi kom Wonkru.”_

I nodded and tightened my hold on Madi’s hand. If all I could do for her now was hold her and pray that nothing went wrong, then that’s what I am going to do.

**Clarke’s POV**

Listening to the horn signaling the ascension of a new _Heda,_ caused waves of apprehension to go through me. Had I done the right thing allowing Madi to go through with this despite the nagging feeling in me that argued that I should have kept her, and Aurora hidden.

“She will be alright Clarke,” Octavia said weakly from where she’d been tied for the past day. “My brother might be annoying and obnoxious at times, but if anything, he is above all overprotective of those he holds dear. I am sure you remember that much.”

I nodded despite the fact that Octavia couldn’t see my nod. “How are you feeling?” I asked knowing that she’d been degraded and hit a couple of times since we’d been down here by guards who would come down.

“My body feels worn out and dirty. I think I have guard spit all over.” She said laughing sarcastically, “but mostly fine.”

I laughed at her raw, yet honest response.

“How long do you think it’ll be before they come and let us out?”

“They’ll probably wait until Madi names the genealogy, after all it is only then that she is truly recognized as _Heda._ ”

“I am sorry Octavia,” I whispered, “I know you must think I am the most selfish person in the world, not only keeping Bellamy from the girls, but also willing to put your life at risk just so that my daughters would get to live.”

“Shh Clarke, I don’t hold anything against you. You did what you had to do. We may be friends, heck even family, but you are their mom, it is your duty to put them ahead any other tie or bond. I respect that. Plus, I’d never forgive myself if my nieces were hurt because of me.”

“Thank you, for understanding.” I said resting my head on the pole that I was tied to.

“Don’t sweat it, Bellamy should have realized what he was insinuating before he did it. Of course, I know his option was the safest for us all, but as a father he should have gone against his rationale and instead protected his family.”

I lifted my head and turned to attempt and see her, she was hunched. “He was protecting his family Octavia. He was protecting you.”

She nodded as tears began to drip onto the floor.

“Still he should never have put your daughters at risk just for me. I deserve all of these people’s hatred, your girls don’t. I deserve to pay for what I have done to these people; your girls are innocent, and I would like to keep them that way.”

“Octavia, you don’t deserve what they want to do to you. Nobody does. Yes, the last six years were tough, you had to make difficult decisions in order to secure the survival of the human race. That doesn’t make you a bad person, it makes you a good leader. People just don’t understand because they weren’t in your shoes. They didn’t have to make the tough calls. It’s easy to point fingers and shift the blame, when you get to live without having to carry the burden of being the leader who made the choice. Trust me nobody knows that better than me.”

She shifted her head toward me with a sympathetic look, “what happened at Mount Weather was not your fault…”

“It was, and I have to live with it,” I said in between heavy breaths, “however I did what I had to do in order to get my people out of there alive, and if I could go back I would do it again if it was the only way for us to get out safely. Despite that it was my call that ended the lives of innocent bipartisan thousands, and it is my cross to bear.”

“I am sorry,” she whispered.

I sighed, “stop apologizing O… how about we change the topic?”

“Hey, do you remember that song that Jasper used to play in the rover every time he rode shotgun?”

I smiled, “how could I forget? What was it called again?” I asked thinking to myself.

“Wasn’t it, _Add it up,_ by violent something?” Octavia asked.

I laughed nodding, “that’s right! He always said it reminded him of Maya!” I said not realizing that I’d subconsciously brought the conversation about Mount Weather up again.

“We’re all seriously screwed up, aren’t we?”

“Yeah… I guess we are.”

We stayed silent for a few minutes, then we both gulped when we heard foreign footsteps outside of the chamber.

“Liberation has come at last!” they heard a crazed Jaha from what sounded like the room next to theirs.

“Shut up! Or I will convince the new _Heda’s_ council to keep you here to rot, old man,” a grounder said with a heavy Tridgedasleng.

“Is that...?” I began but was interrupted by Octavia.

“Yes, it is, I had him incarcerated two years ago when he began a riot against me, for not opening the gate to the outside when he demanded that I did. He among many others lost their minds when things got tough here, hell I was on the verge of it too.” She sounded so weighed down by this.

“You did the right thing O, you proved that he and those with power on the Ark were wrong, seeing as they didn’t incarcerate, but instead floated. You were the bigger person in this situation.” I smiled knowing Bellamy would be very proud of her too.

“That means a lot coming from you,” she said laughing.

The same grounder who’d freed Jaha came over to us and began to untie me. “Heda say you free.”

After he finished with me, he went over to where Octavia was. I helped her stand up when I noticed that the wounds that she had been inflicted with needed immediate care.

“Prepare the med bay for me,” I told the grounder as I helped Octavia walk slowly.

“I am fine Clarke, go see the girls.”

“O, if I don’t clean your wounds soon and wrap them, they will get infested which can lead to amputations, which we don’t have medicine for, or maybe lead to death, which we really can’t afford either. Now stop trying to exterminate yourself and help me get you to the med bay.”

“Great another babysitter!” Octavia groaned as she put some of her weight on her left leg which had an open gash that had clotted to stop the bleeding, but her pants and the grime on her had mixed in with her wound and it was looking yellowish.

“Why didn’t you tell me or anyone else how bad your wounds were?”

“Because I didn’t think it mattered!”

“O! Clarke!” Bellamy called from the stairs when he saw them. “I was coming to help you guys, what the hell happened to you?”

I sighed not really feeling like letting him know that the grounder’s who’d put us in containment hadn’t done so too happily. “We’ll talk about it later, right now I need you to get her to the med bay as soon as possible,” I said.

He nodded and instead of serving Octavia as a crutch like I was doing he picked her up bridal style and began running with her in the direction of the bunker’s med bay.

Once I was there I took an immediate inventoure of what my mom and Jackson had left that I could use on Octavia. It was then that I noticed an old looking vial of penicillin. “O have you ever had penicillin before?” I asked hoping she wasn’t allergic.

“No, why? What is it?”

“It’s a really strong anti-biotic, and I am honestly hoping you’re not allergic, because if you are we really don’t have the medicine to help you with that and all I’ll be able to do is hope your liver passes it with some fluids. “

Bellamy looked extremely nervous, and I realized that I had to calm him down if I wanted this to work. “Ok Bell, listen to me, I am going to clean her wounds and wrap them, then I will inject her the first doses, after that take her to her room. I will be there in a couple of hours to examine her and give her the second if I don’t see that she’s had a negative reaction to it. Of course, sometimes anti-biotics take a while to show their reactions on our bodies…” I kept on rambling when I noticed Bellamy was no longer pacing but was instead smirking at me.

“What?” I asked stopping my rant.

“It’s just I missed…” He passed a hand through his hair, “I missed you Clarke.”

I blushed at his sincerity and nodded turning around to go clean Octavia’s wound.

“How are Madi and Aurora?” I asked trying to change the topic as I worked on the groaning Octavia who would only stop groaning to spit curses at me.

“Before the ceremony Madi asked me to tell her a story, so I told her the story of Tarzan, then after she spoke the genealogies, she asked me to tell her and Aurora as they both laid still in bed. They ended up falling asleep early on, so I came to see if you guys had already been let out.”

“You told them Tarzan?” Octavia asked after another curse word left her lips.

“Well yeah,” he said looking sheepishly at her.

“Watch out Clarke, you might find your daughters believing themselves as children raised by apes!” Octavia said laughing slightly before she groaned.

“Be careful when you laugh O, or your going to reopen your wounds!” Bellamy told her coming beside her.

“Oh great overprotective Bellamy and Mama Bear Clarke are back at it again. I feel like Tangled wondering _When will my life begiiiiinnn_ ,” she screeched way off tune.

We all laughed.

**Raven’s POV**

“Shaw,” I whispered as he came into the dark room where we were being kept. He acted at first like he couldn’t hear us. “Please I know you’re not a criminal like them.”

“So what?” He muttered.

“Help us get out of here, help us contact our friends anything will be better than being here continuously just waiting for something to happen on its own.”

I could see him clench his jaw slightly by his shadow. “I can’t help you.” He turned around to leave when I called out again.

“Please Shaw, these people murdered your crew, your family, at least let us know what they are planning to do to our friends?” I was practically begging at this point.

I heard him sigh as Murphy snored beside me, yes the idiot was sleeping at a time like this.

“Tomorrow I’ll try to sneak a radio comm to you when I bring you food, as for Diyoza’s plan… I don’t know much. All I know is that she tricked your friends and wants to steal the Eden for herself and her crew. At least for now. By the way I let your friends know you were safe and why you hadn’t made contact today. I think they are preparing themselves to somehow save you guys. Although I have no idea how.” He didn’t wait for me to respond again before he walked out the door behind him closing and once again locking.

“Well at least tomorrow we’ll have a radio,” Murphy muttered.

Turns out he was only fake sleeping. The idiot.

“Yeah, in the meantime, how about you put your cockroach skills to some use and find a way to get rid of these binds.”

He started laughing, “way ahead of you nerd,” he then pulled his arms from behind him completely free.

“What? How? Since When?” I asked one after the other to which he just responding laughing harder. Damn you Murphy.”

“Oh I am so hurt, I guess since those are your thoughts on me then maybe I shouldn’t help you get out of those binds.” He asked pointing to my hands behind my back that were still tightly tied.

“Shouldn’t you free your feet first?” I asked pointing down with a look.

“Nope, because I don’t want to get caught. I’ll untie those when we’re leaving in the meantime,” he took out a swiss army knife he had hidden inside his jacket’s right arm, “let’s free your hands.”


	9. Chapter 9: New Beginnings at Last?

**Chapter 9: New Beginnings at Last?**

**Clarke's POV**

After Madi's ascension ceremony, the days started to blend together as we did everything to prepare Wonkru to move to Shallow Valley. We were also busy preparing for the election of the members of Madi's council and just to add a bit more unto our plates we began strategizing how we were going to save Murphy, Raven, Jackson, and my mom.

"I think we should just barge in there and take it," Octavia said nonchalantly, "it's our land and they can't take that away from us."  
"Are you nuts?" I asked in horror, "we'd be putting our own people's lives on the line. Diyoza thought this through and so shall we."

I looked to Bellamy to see what he thought, but all I got was a blank intense stare that made me feel empty and void inside.

"All I can tell you guys is that some people attempted to go to the desert, they had a cut and somehow this weird worm got into them and started collapsing their organs on the inside before they exploded," Miller said with a bizarre look taking over his features.

I struggled to believe that the Death Wave had led to dessert animals adapting and becoming even more hostile. Crossing the desert on foot would have been hard enough before, now it would be twice as bad.

"Maybe it would be best if we take trips on the rover carrying people?" Monty whispered from his seat beside me so that only Harper and I could hear.

I turned my face towards him and shook it, "that would take too long, and it'd be too many trips from here to the valley, we'd be putting in danger those in the valley and those here if Diyoza tries anything."

"What was that Clarke?" Kara Cooper asked, giving me a suspicious glare.

I didn't really trust her and wouldn't have wanted her to be involved in this meeting, but for whatever reason, she was here and made me feel like I couldn't reveal my master plan because then she would find a way to twist it so that the people of Wonkru would believe it to be against them.

"Oh nothing, just me talking to myself," I said, plastering a fake chuckle that I hoped would be enough to convince her.

She gave me a look that would have made anyone else shiver, but I didn't falter. I held my head high and didn't give her the chance to ask any more questions, instead moving to look at Bellamy once more.

"Bellamy, do you have any ideas of what we could do to rescue our friends without getting them or us hurt?" I asked hoping that he would say anything, anything that could possibly work.

His eyes finally focused, and it was as if he'd just woken up from a trance or something, "we could always try to negotiate a peace arrangement with Diyoza. I mean she's cunning, and a criminal, but she doesn't strike me as a nonsensical person."

"Bellamy, that's a ridiculous idea!" Octavia exclaimed standing up. "She's betrayed us before there is no doubt, she'll do it again."

Indra sighed from where she stood by the door, "I think Bellamy might be right, we might have no choice but to strike a peace deal with them. She might be willing to let our people free and share the valley with us, as long as we give her an important place in the government."

Gaia's silence was astonishing because despite her lack of words her face and eyes spoke louder than any of us had. It was obvious that she refused to put Diyoza as one of our government leaders.

"She's not one of us!" Octavia exclaimed, "plus she's a criminal, a murderer for gods' sakes."

I looked at her with a softer look, "Octavia, do you remember when we first landed here. We were criminals, among us there were murderers and while yes all of us eventually only killed to save our people in the end we also murdered hundreds of grounders and they murdered us, and despite all that I became a representative in Lexa's court, we were take in as the thirteenth clan. We are now one united clan, but things were not always like that, and if we would have wanted the grounders to treat us differently then I think we should treat the Eligius people like we would have wanted the grounders to treat us."

I looked around the room and found the proud smile of a few and the astounded look from others.

"That's it, that's how we do better," Bellamy said, "humans have fought wars and killed each other and our planet on the basis of betrayal and the pissing match of this is now my land you're not welcome. We are one race and we can learn to live with each other. There is no need for a war to be fought or for us to destroy the last remnants of what once was our home. Let's do different this time let's treat each other as we would have wanted to be treated as Clarke says. Let's be a society that learns from its mistakes and doesn't have to live to just survive. Let's settle down with our families and have lives and begin fixing our broken planet."

I don't know why but I felt Bellamy's words seep into me and give me a surge of hope. A surge of newfound energy that I hadn't had since we had first landed on the ground.

Madi smiled from her seat, I had not been pleased with having her present, but Gaia was adamant that the Commander had to be present and while she would be free to listen in on our discussion until a council was elected her decision would be the final action.

"I think we have all shared our thoughts on what would be the best course of action and I have finally come to one conclusion and that is what Bellamy and Clarke have spoken about," she took a deep breath as Cooper snickered, "we will give the people of Eligius the benefit of the doubt, we will offer them peace and Diyoza a place on the council and in exchange, they will return our people to us. However, we will keep a watchful eye on them and be cautious."

She looked around the room with a glare she had learnt from Bellamy in the short time she'd known him, threatening them to question her decision. When nobody spoke, she adjourned the meeting, and everyone but Octavia, Bellamy, Madi, Monty, Harper, and I left.

"Madi, I don't think this idea is wise," Octavia said once it was just us in the room, "Diyoza's people have technology that we lack, she doesn't necessarily need us. She's not going to willingly unify with us when we have nothing to offer her."

"That's the thing, Octavia, she wants to cure her people and will need doctors and healers and while she has my mom and Jackson, they will refuse to work to help her if she hurts us. Also, her people don't have many skills in things like engineering, programming, spacewalking, food production, hell they probably don't even know how to live off the land. We do have something to offer, plus if they don't agree with our terms, what do we have to lose? Diyoza is likely using Raven and Murphy as bait for my mom and Jackson, which means she won't likely hurt them anytime soon. If we declare war, then we'll damn our family up there and ourselves down here."

Octavia sighed finally understanding, "I guess I have to come to terms with forgiving and moving on despite their past betrayal." She smiled slightly and said goodbye.

Monty who had been silent since he's whispered to me earlier finally spoke, "I am so proud of you guys. I think this might be the birth of a new and better era of the human race."

Harper smiled and stood up, "I am very proud of you Madi, maybe, just maybe we are finally moving on to something new. I truly hope for that." She then grabbed Monty's hand as a smile plastered on her face, "I think this calls for a celebration, don't you?"

He smirked wickedly and stood up and they both left the room with their hands conjoined.

"What does that mean?" Madi asked with an innocent curious look.

Bellamy and I looked at each other with smiles, a red tint quickly took over my cheeks as I thought of Monty and Harper's exchange just now, "oh nothing, I am sure they're just going to go drink or something."

I smiled at Bellamy's awkward reply, Madi was not going to let it go that simply, she is not dumb.

"I am not stupid you know; I think I've lived enough to understand just a bit of their exchange just now. And there was no insinuation of drinking, if anything I'd bet they're going to have sex or something," she says nonchalantly as if having this conversation with her parents was totally normal.

Of course, I knew that grounders raised their children exposed to public displays of intimacy, but I'd never had to experience Madi's understanding of it.

"Young lady! I think its time for you to go to self-defense class."

She smiled and stood up fast, "I love you guys see you later."

After she left, I went to stand up when Bellamy grabbed my hand and looked into my eyes, "she definitely takes after you," he said with a smile.

I raised my eyebrow at him, "Na ah did you see that speech she gave back there, that was all Bellamy."

"I think it was more strategic and thoughtful Clarke."

He then got closer to me and began to tickle me, "Bellamy!" I exclaimed as laughter filled the silence in the room.

**Bellamy' POV**

After Madi had left Clarke and I bothered each other for a while and agreed to meet in the radio room in a while to contact Diyoza. Then I finally excused myself to go check on Echo. She had been supposed to be present at the meeting, but for some reason had not shown.

I found her sitting on our bed with a clouded look, "Echo? Are you alright?"

She turned her face in my direction and sighed, "I am fine, please just let me be." Upon closer inspection, I noticed the tear stains on her cheeks and wondered what had happened. Echo didn't normally cry. Usually, she held on to her emotions until she either blew up or she would beat it in training.

"Echo, I have known you for a long time now, I am not a stranger to you. I can tell when things are not alright."

I sat beside her and took her hands into my own. Echo was scary, when she was in pain, she didn't show it and that was scary, however, when she showed it that meant that the pain had been too much for her to deal with on her own.

"I just don't think it would be appropriate for me to share this burden with you," she said attempting to pull her hands from his grip.

"And yet I have never known you to care about what is considered appropriate or not and you know I don't really care either, so please Echo spare me the excuse, just tell me, what's wrong?"

She sighed and gave in, "it's just I feel like I am robbing Aurora and Madi of their dad. You know I am sure they have hope that you and Clarke will soon make amends and settle down with each other. And I don't want to be selfish about you, but Bellamy you're my only family. You're the only person that I truly care about and I don't think I can lose that and if you want to go and be with Clarke then that's fine, but I guess I just feel alone in the world and would want nothing more than to hold on to you and have a life besides, you and I know that now you and Clarke have a family together, but I guess I am just selfish."

I hadn't expected those words from Echo, I mean back on the ring we had been each other's partners for a few years now. I owed her my recovery from mourning Clarke, in fact, I owed her my life because there were days up there when I thought things would just be better if I'd give up if I pulled a trigger and ended this life of constant fluctuation. I thought maybe then I'd see Clarke again. I'd be beside her and I could ask her to forgive me for leaving her behind. It was in those days that Echo had become my rock, she would always be there to remind me that Clarke had sacrificed herself so that I could live, and that her death would have been in vain if I never returned to Earth.

"You're not being selfish Echo, and if I've been absent from you since we arrived back here then I am sorry. Honestly yeah, I can see how the girls would probably want Clarke and I to get together, but neither of us has plans of that Echo. You know Clarke will always be one of the most important people in my life, but so are you." I sighed, "I love you Echo, and I want the girls to love you as a second mother. Believe it or not, they're now your family too."

She sighed as if I didn't really understand what I was asking of her, and maybe I really didn't, but the girls were going to be a constant in my life now and as such also in hers. I wanted them to get along with each other.

"I have to go," I said just realizing that the time to go to the radio room had come. "We're going to try and make a peace agreement with Diyoza. When I come back, I'll probably bring the girls with me so that they can begin to get used to you."

"Bella..."

I walked away fast not listening to her because I knew what she was about to say, "See you later."

I rushed through the halls and stairs with little to no thought going through my head. Before I knew it I was inside of the room. I walked to an empty seat beside Harper and whispered, "Where are Madi and Clarke?"

"I heard Aurora was crying when they went to the room because she never saw either of them or you anymore," Harper said as a smile took over her face, "Clarke was calming her down, she said they'd be here as soon as possible."

I nodded understanding and immediately feeling guilty for being negligent of both my girlfriend and youngest daughter. I hoped that the council members were elected soon because raising two kids was proving to be difficult when both Clarke and I were busy discussing the best course of actions to take.

Then I heard running footsteps and knew Madi was approaching the room.

"We're here!" she exclaimed from the entryway of the room. "Bellamy!"

I smiled as she rushed and sat in my legs with a smile. "Is your sister feeling better?"

Clarke walked into the room and took the seat opposite of mine, "yeah, but Clarke and I had to promise that the four of us would have a family day for just us once we went back home."

I nodded thinking that maybe it'd be good to bring Echo on that as well, even if Aurora had only wanted it to be the four of us.

"Do you think you and your sister would like to go sleepover with Echo and me, maybe we could find some games or something to do."

Madi's face then morphed from her happy go lucky self to a serious and mysterious look. "I guess," she then stood up from my legs and walked to sit on the seat beside Clarke.

"Can they Clarke?"

Clarke looked up suddenly as if she'd been caught unaware, "Uhm what?"

I chuckled realizing she'd probably been thinking something intently.

"Can the girls' sleepover with Echo and me tonight?"

She clenched her jaw and nodded without speaking a sound. Madi then put her hand on Clarke's and slowly began to rub her finger on the top of her head.

"Alright let's get this done," Madi muttered as Indra and O walked into the room.

Monty nodded and readied the radio, then Madi spoke, "Ground to Eligius, do you copy?" She smirked as if that had been something, she had wanted to do her entire life.

"Eligius here, to what do I owe the pleasure," Diyoza said sarcastically from the other side.

"I am the new _Heda_ of Wonkru and I am contacting you to reach a peace agreement," Madi stated firmly putting a strong and forceful voice on that would become a must if she was going to serve as the figurehead of our people.

"Hahaha," Diyoza laughed and I clenched my fist.

"Oh God please," I heard Clarke whisper as she closed her eyes.

"Well little girl let me assure you there is little that you offer that will convince me, but I guess I'll indulge you, do please share why I'd accept your offer what's in it for us."

Madi swallowed and took a deep breath as she shared with Diyoza our agreement and terms.

"Well I guess that sounds fair enough, fine I'll agree so long as you promise to have a slot on your council for me. Also, my people will be treated fairly. The moment I feel that they're being bullied or even segregated, we're at war again and I hope you remember that we have the heavy machinery."

"My word as Heda is a command, any action against your men, is an action against me and will be therefore punished in accordance to the wrongful action, however that goes towards your men too."

"Alright I can agree to that, in that case, I guess I'll let wonderboy and techie girl free as an acknowledgment of our treaty."

"Deal."

"Until we see again, _Heda."_

Madi placed the radio down and looked at her mom and me as if asking if she'd made us proud.

"Good job sweetheart!" Clarke said.

"Come on Madi, let's go get your sister and head to our celebratory sleepover." I opened my arms for her and she reluctantly filled them before we began to walk out.

"I love you Madi," Clarke called out from inside.

"Love you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, don’t kill me. I know I missed both of last week’s updates, but what can I say I am off on an internship in a farm where the Wi-Fi is weak, and well I barely have time to write. I honestly still don’t even know how I got this done.   
> I hope you guys like it by the way.   
> Please review, follow and favorite, and let me know what you think of the story so far. Thank you to those who followed and favorited and reviewed/commented. I love reading yall's comments because honestly, it encourages me to write when I am feeling lazy.   
> Stay Safe and Hopefully, I’ll be able to post Chapter 10 tomorrow. Until then.  
> Love and many thanks,  
> Emily1050


	10. Chapter 10: Conflicts in Peace Times

**Chapter 10: Conflicts in Peace Times**

**Raven’s POV**

I had just begun to fall asleep when Diyoza walked into the room, where they’d kept Murphy and I. Shaw, hadn’t shown by here again and I had to assume that Diyoza was either keeping him busy, gotten him caught, or worse he had betrayed us.

“Well girlie seems like we’re going to be on the same side after all,” Diyoza said when I focused my sight on her.

What? How? Had Bellamy and Clarke found a way to save us from these people's grasp without fighting?

“Your people's new _Heda,_ radioed me earlier to discuss our peace treaty, apparently she believes that we can have a symbiotic relationship, plus she offered me a place in their new government. I thought it was fair enough that she also secured the safety of my men from your people, of course, my men have to behave, but that’s alright. Now come on, I am going to let the ties go.”

I grimaced, knowing that my arms were not tied anymore, and neither were Murphy’s. I decided to bring my arms forward and be honest before she realized it herself.

Murphy groaned from beside me. He had been sleeping incessantly in the last few days, he blamed it on the dark and coldness of the room.

Diyoza’s eyes followed my free arms with a smirk, “good this means you people will not be completely useless. I am going to free your legs then. After that I will leave you to free that one and go to the dropship bay, you’re driving it with a couple of my men and well Shaw, although I had to punish him after he tried to help you before so maybe stay clear of him for now.”

She stepped forward and used a knife to free my legs, then she gave me the knife and I must have had a bizarre look in my face because she laughed, “if you hurt me or any of my people, you are sentencing all of those people down there to a certain and painful death.”

“I won’t hurt anyone If Octavia deemed you a part of our people, then I will respect her wishes,” I said still not quite understanding what she’d meant with _new Heda._

“Oh no, the new _Heda_ is a child, not Octavia. People in that bunker refused to have Octavia be their leader for much more. No this is that girl, Clarke’s daughter, or something.” She then walked out of the room leaving me with a sleeping Murphy and a cold steel knife sheathed in my hand.

I took a deep breath as my mind processed her words. Clarke’s daughter? We had not really been able to speak since we’d established communication with the ground, but shouldn’t someone tell me these kinds of essential things. “Murphy! Get up!” I stood up and walked over to him.

When he didn’t falter in his sleep, I took to kicking him softly.

“Yeesh, Raven!” Murphy cried after only a few kicks. He looked at my completely free form and became silent.

“It seems like our people have made a deal to unite our peoples. We’re free now, oh and Octavia is not commander anymore. Apparently, it’s Clarke’s daughter,” I said trying to catch him up

“Clarke has a daughter?” Murphy asked silently getting up.

“My thoughts exactly. Let’s go Murphy we have a lot to catch up on with our people.” Then I began to walk towards the dropship bay, just like Diyoza instructed. I want to know what is going on and the only way that’s going to happen is if I can sit with my friends and catch up.

**Bellamy’s POV**

Walking toward the room where Aurora had stayed while we spoke in the radio room became an extremely sweaty experience. I was nervous; nervous about her reaction to sleeping somewhere without her mother; nervous of her seeing Echo as a mother figure rather than a family friend; nervous about what she would say when we told her, and how disappointed she would be that Clarke and I were not getting back together anytime soon.

“How do you think she will react?” I asked Madi, who had stayed silent since she had said goodbye to Clarke.

“Bad,” was all she said before she walked ahead of me.

“Madi!” I called out but received no verbal reply, just a waved hand signaling me to leave her alone. Raising Octavia hadn’t been enough preparation for raising my own children and apparently, I was nowhere near receiving the _best dad_ of the year award, oh no, I was apparently off with some of the worst parents for not taking into account my children’s feelings before making decisions.

I slowed my steps to give Madi a bit of time, hoping that she would come to terms and we would be able to begin t get to know each other more in-depth.

After a minute or so I came to a stop in front of the room where Aurora had been playing with some of the other children. Madi was already carrying her and walking toward me.

“Daddy!” Aurora exclaimed excitedly jumping out of Madi’s grasp and running to me.

“Hey, sweetie!” I said kneeling to be at eye level with her. She smiled and jumped into my open arms and clung onto my neck. I closed my arms around her and stood up, holding her there. “Come on Madi, let’s go start our sleepover.”

Madi’s mood didn’t improve no matter how much I tried to cheer her up or get her to smile.

“Daddy, can we invite mommy to a sleepover as well?” Aurora asked breathing into my neck. I stiffened, had Madi not told her.

“Not tonight. Tonight, I want you and your sister to get to know someone new…” she pushed herself from my chest so that she could see my face. Her face was clouded in confusion, “ She’s someone important. A big part of our family.”

She didn’t answer instead just returned to rest on my shoulder.

I decided to speed up my walk so we could get this evening started and over with. Maybe it was still too soon for me to begin changing their lives like this. Madi knew what was going on, but Aurora would be hurt when she found out just what kind of special person Echo was to me. She had been very open about her desire that Clarke and I get together, never hiding or even attempting to be subtle about it and I could understand her. Every little kid wishes that their parents would be together.

Upon arrival at Echo’s and my room, I decided that I’d hold on telling them that Echo was my girlfriend. I was going to introduce her as my friend. A very special friend.

“Alright girls, this person is very important to me, so I would love it if you guys will give her a chance.”

Madi’s gaze hardened and she looked as if she were ready to flee without much more notice. I placed my hand on her back and gently rubbed it, hoping it would have a positive effect and she would calm down.

“Daddy are we going to see mommy again tonight?” Aurora asked barely above a whisper. I realized that she was probably scared of sleeping without Clarke there because every time that had happened it was because something had been wrong, like the night I met them, or when Clarke was in prison.

“We should see her at the mess hall for dinner sweetie. You’ll get to give her a sweet and passionate kiss and say goodnight. Now come on,” I didn’t even take the time to think it over before I opened the door to our room and allowed the girls in. “Echo! I brought the girls.”

Echo was sitting on the bed facing the opposite wall, making it so her back was toward us. When she heard my voice, she turned toward us, and a cold glaze took over her eyes. Something she had only shown me when we had been in the cages at Mount Weather and later at the Conclave when she wanted Roan to win despite everything.

Aurora began to shake in front of me, intimidated by the warrior before her, meanwhile Madi took a step forward and covered her sister from the intense glare, a warrior herself indeed.

“Girls this is one of my best friends and one of the most important ladies in my life,” I said carefully wording myself. I wouldn’t tell them, yet that Echo and I were dating. No, I was going to tell them that she was important and once they were comfortable with her, and she with them then I would tell them the extent of my relationship with her. “Her name is Echo.”

Echo’s eyes softened understanding that I wanted the girls to create a relationship with her. Once we got back to Shallow Valley it would be easier for all of us to settle down and be a family once and for all. Clarke and I would come to some sort of custody agreement and whenever the girls were with me, they’d be comfortable because they already knew Echo.

“Hi Madi, Aurora…” Echo said attempting to sound enthusiastic, “I am Echo, Bellamy’s friend. I am very excited to get to know the two of you tonight.” The girls stayed silent and Echo bit her lip nervously unsure of how to get a conversation going.

“Hey Echo, around what time is it?” I asked thinking that letting the girls know that there was still an hour or two before dinner would be beneficial to their cooperation.

Echo looked at the clock adorning the plain wall of the bunker room, “about five-thirty. Why do you ask?” She said looking back at me.

“Just calculating how much time until dinner, so that we can do something fun, the four of us.” I smiled when Madi’s gaze shifted to me and I could see she was not hostile anymore. “What do you guys want to do since dinner is not until seven?”

Madi looked around as if wondering what they could do. Then her eyes caught on a book I had brought from Shallow Valley, her gaze stayed on it and I could see her eyes tear up, but she quickly hid it.

“Can you read us that,” she said pointing to the book, surprising me. I had thought that for whatever reason she had cried she wouldn’t want to hear it.

I nodded and walked over to where the book laid beside the bed. I then sat on the floor and waited for the three of them to sit around me.

Aurora rushed into my legs and smiled when she recognized the book, “mommy always used to read that book to us, she said it reminded her of you!”

Echo looked walked over to where we were sitting on the floor and joined us. She was still cautious about how she acted around the girls, but her behavior was calmer and more natural.

“Yeah, it’s a Greek Mythology classic. I used to read it to Octavia when she was little too. In fact, I was so infatuated with the Greek world when I was younger that I named Octavia after Octavia Minor, the sister of the Roman emperor, Augustus.”

Madi laughed, “Clarke was right you are a nerd!” She kept on laughing and Echo smirked knowing that this would hunt me forever.

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with a little culture.”

“No, but there’s definitely something wrong when you name a child after a woman who lived thousands of years ago,” Echo argued chuckling.

“Right, poor Octavia, she got the brunt of his nerdiness.”

Aurora started laughing too, probably only understanding a bit of the conversation.

“Are we going to read _the Odyssey_ or not?”

“Oh, valiant father of mine, please doeth yee me the pleasure of reading ye’r faithful lassies a wee bit of that book,” Madi said imitating a Scottish accent in between laughs.

“Where did you learn to do that?” I asked her surprised. Madi had never been exposed to TV as far as I could tell so I didn’t understand how she knew how to do the Scottish accent.

“Clarke used it to intrigue me when I was running wild through the Valley placing bear tracks everywhere.” She shrugged and a smile adorned her pale face.

“Alright, alright settle down everyone. I am going to start reading.”

The girls all settled down laughing as I focused on the words that I had read so many times before.

**Clarke’s POV**

Being alone was a concept I hadn’t really had to endure since Praimfaya had begun, because after I found Madi and gave birth to Aurora, my every day was filled with both of them. If I was hunting and they were in the village, I was in a hurry to get back to them.

If I was talking on the radio to the ring, I had them in my line of sight so I could act up if anything dangerous happened. Now I felt like I had no idea what to do with my free time. What did I like to do before, apart from drawing or painting?

“What are you doing Clarke?” Niylah asked as she passed me in the hallway.

I shrugged with a small laugh, “I am not really sure. Bellamy took the girls to spend the night with him and Echo and I feel like it’s the first time in years where I am not with them or worrying about their safety, so I am unsure of what I used to like to spend my free time on.”

She laughed when I finished, and my smile widened knowing that I was being ridiculous. “What do you suggest I do?”

She stopped laughing and smirked, “I heard Monty just finished one of his experiments with algae. I was going there to get myself a little drunk, want to join me?”

“I feel like I should say no to that, but if I am being honest that does sound like fun! Let’s go.”

We hurried up toward Harper and Monty’s room, not thinking about the fact that we’d be drinking on an empty stomach since dinner had yet to happen and in the room beside Bellamy’s.

Once we reached their room, we knocked on the door and waited patiently for someone to open the door.

Then we stepped back when we heard a person on the other side of the door pushing it slightly open. “What’s the secret passcode?” Harper asked completely drunk.

“Harper just let us in,” I said laughing when I saw that she was using the door as a support for her body.

“No Clarke you need to tell me the passcode or I will not falter to close the door on you. We don’t want to get in trouble!”

“In trouble with who?” Niylah asked chuckling, “You guys are basically the leaders of this base and the only other people who would have something against this would be Abby, Kane, and Jaha. The latter I heard was being kept under close surveillance at the farthest set up tent, Abby is aboard Eligius, and Kane well he has kept busy caring for Jaha and his health.”

“I don’t care you need to tell me the passcode or I will shut this door.”

“Is the passcode by any chance 1-2-3-4?” I asked with a smirk, knowing that despite being drunk Harper would get my attempt at a tease.

“Ha-ha Clarke, how funny. I think I’ll just shut the door.”

“No, no, wait. I know the passcode is HarperlovesMonty, isn’t it?” I smirked again and Harper broke into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

“It’s not! But I like it so you can come in,” she moved back and opened the door fully. “Welcome to our _Return to Earth II_ party.”

“Is that seriously what you guys are calling it?” Niylah asked.

“Yes! Now shut up before I kick your cute buts out…” She wobbled as she stepped forward. “Ooh, Let’s party!”

I looked around the room and found that we were not the only ones joining Harper and Monty, all over the room there were people from the bunker dancing messily and drinking.

I wish I could say that when I took the first sip, I didn’t already feel the effects of the alcohol on me. But that would be a lie, apparently, six years of abstinence from alcohol had made me very weak to it. And added to that was the empty stomach on which I consumed the alcohol.

Maybe on my second shot, I already felt like things around me were shaking, but I felt a deep desire to forget the past few days and all of its occurrences even if that meant dealing with horrible consequences later on today.

Before I knew it the alarm for dinner filled the hall and everyone dispersed from Harper and Monty’s room.

“I don’t wanna go!” I cried as I continued gulping down another cup of Monty’s gross alcohol.

“Clarke come on; we need to sober you up a bit! The food will be good for you,” Monty argued trying to pull me up from where I was sitting on the floor.

“Noooo, mommy! I want to play some more,” I whined not really conscious of what it was I was even saying anymore.

Monty sighed and let go of my arm, but by doing so he lost his footing and landed across from me on the floor. “Oh man I should have been careful to let you drink,” he slurred, “I mean we had moonshine in space, cause I would make it, but down here you’ve practically become an alcohol virgin all over again.”

“Mommy, why are my ears ringing?” I screamed as I barely made out what it was, he was saying.

“Alright that’s it I am getting you, Bellamy. He is the father of your children and should therefore be the one to deal with you right now. Not me.” He went to stand up, but I quickly grabbed his hand.

“No Monty, please don’t get him. I don’t want to see him. His face makes me want to cry and every time he is in the room, I feel more alone than I’ve ever before. Then there are times when I feel like maybe things could return to normal, but then he reminds me that six years have passed, and he got to move on. I need a break, please don’t bring him here. I don’t want to see him.” I kept on repeating myself I think, but eventually, my grip on Monty’s hand loosened.

“Clarke!” I heard Bellamy’s voice call out from the door. I looked up slightly sobering up.

“Bell?”

“What are you doing on the floor drinking that horrible stuff?” He asked telling Madi to go to the mess hall with his hands as he walked into the room to help me.

I wanted to cry, but nothing happened. I wanted to convey my feelings of pain and agony, but instead, I faltered as he tried to help me up and fell on the floor again, almost landing on Monty.

“I’m leaving, you guys are my family and I love you and all, but I have enough on my plate as it is, without meddling in your business. See you at the mess hall,” Monty said as he struggled to get up, but somehow succeeded.

Once we were alone in the room, Bellamy sat beside me and patted my back as if comforting me. “Do you want me to bring you some water to splash on your face and drink?”

I shook my head staring at the floor in front of me.

“What do you want me to do then?”

“Nothing.”

“Clark…”

“I wish you’d do nothing because every time you do something you end up driving that cold steel sword of yours deeper into my heart and destroying it and maybe you don’t do it on purpose, but I feel like ever since you guys came down I’ve lost my best friend. The best friend that I had even when you were up there, and I was down here.” I stuttered as I began to lose consciousness.

“What do you mean Clarke? I am right here! I’m here for you!” Bellamy’s eyebrows were scrunched up together as he thought my words over.

“Are you really?” I asked looking up to look into his eyes, “I felt like I had you more when I spoke empty words to a nonfunctioning radio for six years than I do now.”

“You did that?”

I nodded gulping, “and you should know that I wasn’t usually talking to everyone else,” I looked forward as my vision unfocused. “Usually I was calling for you, for my best friend, for the man that I loved, and I believed loved me back. But I guess I can’t fault you. You thought I was dead and gave up hope that somehow, I’d managed to survive. I mean how could I right?” I laid down sideways and placed my head on his thigh.

“I love you too Clarke, even if I don’t get to say it. I wish I could turn back time and stay beside you. I wish we would have raised our family together from the beginning. I wish you were the first face I saw every morning and the last before I fell asleep. But that can’t be. I can’t do that to Echo. I made a promise to her and one I intend to keep.”

“That’s ok. I already knew you’d say that” I whispered falling asleep, “don’t worry about me. I am a tough girl. In fact, I’ll probably forget this entire conversation by tomorrow morning. I hope I forget this conversation.”

It was then that I lost consciousness and finally let the darkness take me over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N
> 
> Hey, guys I know I am a few days late, but hey better late than never right. Well, I have to make this short because I have to get back to working on the farm. Tomorrow is my last day here and while my body will be certainly grateful to get rest once more, I’ll be missing the cows and horses forever and ever and ever.
> 
> I hope everyone is well and safe.
> 
> And let me know what you all thought of the chapter. I love getting feedback you guys, I don’t think you guys understand how just a few simple words from you all can make a difference. As always love you and thank you for your follows, favorites, and reviews/comments.
> 
> Peace and out
> 
> Emily1050.


	11. Chapter 11: Last Hope on Earth

**Chapter 11: Last Hope on Earth**

**Bellamy’s POV**

I felt Clarke’s body relax and knew immediately that she’d passed out. It was then that I finally let myself feel the pain that I’d made her, and the girls endure. By moving on and furthering a relationship with Echo I had abandoned three of the four women I couldn’t live without.

I looked down at Clarke and saw how tired she looked like she hadn’t had a moment to rest in forever. She had dried up tear marks and eyebags on her face pointing to the anguish she’d had that she had thought to resolve only with drowning herself in alcohol.

I sighed.

Life had been so much simpler when we had first arrived on Earth. Before the Ark had come down, before the Mount Weather fiasco in which we made even worst enemies of the Grounders when Finn went rampage on that village before Clarke had left for months to deal with her guilt making a deadly name for herself. Oh yeah, I wish those things had just never happened and we’d just settled on the Dropship campsite. We would have created a community and eventually would have made peace with the Grounders. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking and we would have died out the moment Winter hit us without the Ark’s assistance.

Clarke snored lightly and I smiled reminiscing that sound that had always calmed me down.

“Oh Clarke, I wish I hadn’t gotten on that spaceship without you.” I felt the tears before I realized what was happening.

“I wish we could have been together to raise Aurora and Madi from the beginning.” A tempting thought flashed through my mind as I felt the need to be closer to the girl I couldn’t live without. “But that’s all I can do, wish. For I can not bring myself to hurt Echo or you and the girls, despite it being all that I have achieved.”

I picked Clarke’s body up and carried her out of the room and into mine and Echo’s. She would need to be watched over and I know the girls would be more at ease knowing their mom would be beside them.

Now how to tell Echo of recent developments.

After tucking Clarke into the bed in Echo’s and my room. I decided to go join everyone at dinner and see what could be done as for sleeping arrangements.

I jogged down the many corridors in search of the cafeteria when I by chance saw Madi standing under the hole of the roof staring up.

“I thought I told you to go eat dinner,” I said smirking as I got closer to her.

She tensed her body as she brought her gaze down to meet my own. Only then did I realize her eyes were bloodshot red. A feeling of protectiveness and worry overtook me as I felt my world spin o its axis. Madi was one of my princesses I had a responsibility to protect her physical body as well as her mental and psyche.

“Madi what’s wrong,” I muttered stretching my arms out to reach for her.

Madi shook her head in silence as she slowly stepped backward, and away from me. “Mad…”

“You know Clarke used to tell Aurora and I stories about you. In her eyes, you were without fault. Her hero, her best friend, lover, and the man with whom she shared every piece of her.” She looked down as tears began to pour from her eyes, “even when the chances that you were still alive were close to none. She held hope and prayed that somewhere out there,” she pointed her hand at the dark sky only adorned by the bright stars that shone lightyears away.

“She spent the last six years waiting for a sign of life, she taught Madi and me to rely on you, even when you weren’t here. Hell, I thought meeting you would have been the greatest thing in my life…” She struggled with her words as more sobs broke through her and I felt my heart wreak in pain at the heartbreak I had caused my daughter. “However, knowing you have been a disappointing realization that you are human like the rest of us, that you make mistakes, that you feel pain, and burdens just as the rest of us do. And Clarke loves your humanity, she loves that you care about everyone’s wellbeing above your own.”

She stopped talking and whispered something as if realizing something as she spoke. Then she looked up at me with a new determination in her eyes clear as the rising sun, “I wish you were more selfish.”

Then she began to walk in the direction of the rooms, “I’ll see you in the room, Bellamy. I am suddenly not feeling that hungry.”

“Madi!” I called out, but she just tensed her shoulders and passed the hallway without looking back.

I decided a few minutes sitting underneath the stars would do me some good and went up the entry hole and sat in the destruction of what had once been the great city of _Polis_.

Looking up at the stars I wondered how many times I had done so and taken it for granted while living on the Ark, then when arriving on Earth at first all I could do was look down as if never once wanting to remember again the fact that the galaxy was vax and in it somewhere there were probably other forms of intelligent life.

To be totally honest I have never been utterly religious. However, at that moment I prayed. I prayed for guidance and assistance in the choices that were fast approaching my life.

I prayed and I cried as I realized just how much I had failed my people.

Just as I was beginning to prepare to back inside. I saw a bright ball of fire entering the atmosphere and realized that Diyoza must have sent Raven and Murphy down.

I rushed inside to call people out to see what was happening. I sought Aurora knowing that I should wake Clarke up and help her sober up so she could meet with Raven after all these years.

I entered the room with Aurora on my shoulder. Walking in I noticed immediately Madi was sleeping next to Clarke, resting her head on her mother’s breast.

“Madi, Clarke. Come on girls wake up, I have a surprise for you.” Madi woke up without too much fuss, however, Clarke groaned and shook her head as she muttered to leave her alone. 

“Come on Clarke! Don’t you want to be there when Raven lands to introduce the girls yourself?” She opened her eyes and I noticed that she looked only a little bit better than she had been before when she had been extremely drunk.

“I have some water and some pain algae powder I got from your mom’s clinic.”

“Why is my head shaking,” she said with a slur. Madi immediately worried over Clarke and began to fuzz around her. “Madi calm down sweetie I am seeing two of you.”

I smiled at that and helped her sit up, “here.” I said handing her the algae powder and water. 

“Thank you, Bell.” She took the cup with the powder and swallowed it as fast as she could before she could throw it up, she grabbed the cup with water and drank it.

“How are you feeling?” I asked after a few minutes.

“A bit better, thanks.”

“Clarke, I want to apologize to you for everything. I want you to know that I am going to do my hardest to be better for you, for the girls, and for our people.”

She looked up at me and I couldn’t quite tell what was going through her head, although I could tell had been taken by surprise, and I too had been.

“They’re landing!” Someone yelled from the hallway.

“Let’s go before more people pile up there and make it harder for us to welcome our friends,” I said helping her get up once more.

“Thank you so much, Bellamy.”

“I love you, Clarke, you don’t have to thank me for anything.” I tightened my hold on Aurora who was nodding off and out of sleep and reaching an arm for Madi who was helping Clarke get up.

Within a few minutes, I found myself outside supporting most of Clarke’s weight and the rest of my family as Octavia, Echo, Monty, Harper, Emori, and Marcus stood impatiently beside us. Waiting for our friends to get down from their transport.

Then after waiting what seemed like an eternity finally the gate opened, and we all saw as Raven and Murphy stepped out with bright smiles.

Then we all were surprised by the loud words that Raven practically yelled, “We’re back…!”

**Raven’s POV**

Freefalling down the Earth’s atmosphere was something I hadn’t done in a long time and while this dropship was much better suited for the impact than the small shuttle I had previously used I felt the worries I had felt all those years ago resurface except this time I didn’t have a boyfriend to live for. No, but I did have a family, a growing family.

“What’s that stupid smile about?” screamed Murphy over the loud roar of the atmosphere.

“Shut up!” I yelled back as the heat levels began to rise.

“Raven prepare to stabilize temperature levels; we are about to be within Earth’s atmosphere and must fly a bit until we can get to Polis where your people are.” Shawn commanded as the ship entered Earth.

I got to work on securing that the temperature levels of the ship were stable. Then released the breath I hadn’t noticed I had been holding when I saw the trees beneath me in the darkness. So, this was Eden.

The last hope of survival on Earth for us.

“Are you seeing this Murphy?”

“I am. Can you believe it? When we first arrived, we didn’t truly appreciate the value of life as we do now huh?” I nodded and smiled through the tears. There had been so much blood loss in our lives in the last years.

“I honestly can’t wait to see Clarke or Polis,” Murphy to which Shawn responded with a grunt.

“What is it?” I asked him, noticing how tense he’d become after Murphy’s comment. He shifted his head to look into my eyes.

“I think you’ll find that the city of Polis is nothing but a bunch of rubble, and I as someone who never saw it as anything else wept over it, so I cannot imagine how you guys are going to feel hen you see it. I advise that you prepare for the worst and not compare to what you just saw there below. This is the only remaining semblance of what Earth once looked like.” He didn’t speak again after this and focused his eyes on the view in front of us.

“Then I will sacrifice myself for the bettering of the human race and so we do better this time on our planet.”

I felt someone’s intense stare and turned to see Murphy staring at me intently with a smirk, “what?”

“Nothing just you sound just like Monty with all his sappiness about doing better and all.” I smile at this and smirk as I realize he was insinuating that Monty had rubbed off on me way too much.

“Well I rather Monty rub off on me, that you with all you _‘I have a stick up my ass behavior_ ,’”

“I do not behave like that.” He muttered defensively.

“Sure, you do, that’s why we all ran away from you on the Ark.,” I said becoming more serious and realizing we were getting into a topic of discussion that would be tough for Murphy. After all, it was his behavior that had led to his breakup with Emori.

Murphy apparently recognized the train of thought I had, when he said “no matter what she thinks I love her more than anything. If I ever offended her or exhausted her emotionally, I was honestly trying to do my best by her.” He looked ahead and gulped which led to me looking up and seeing in the dark a pile of cement buildings remnants. “Look, Raven. I love her. She was the first person in a long time for who I cared more than myself. I can’t imagine living without her and if I ever caused her to feel cornered while on the ark it’s because I wanted to keep her safe despite what I had to do.”

I realized he wanted to get things cleared up before we were thrown into the despair in which we would find our people. “I believe you, Murphy. But I hope you can also understand that I was only teaching her how to control a dropship in the scenario that it would be necessary as it proved to be, and you were overbearing. That’s why she ended things, but I know she loves you just as you love her. Now relax and prepare for meeting Wonkru at last.”

“Everyone prepared to land?” asked Shawn looking at us and the other men Diyoza had sent with us. When we all nodded. He began to land the dropship.

**Clarke’s POV**

Seeing Raven and Murphy again after the long six years made my heartache. Finally, at last… my family was complete, whole, and safe.

They were all here except my mother and Jackson who I am sure would be joining us soon.

“This is it, princess. Our chance to do better,” Bellamy whispered as he held me up.

“No daddy, it’s our time to do better,” Aurora whispered groggily from where she rested on his shoulder.

“It’s the hope of our people that we do better,” Madi said smiling at me.

“No sweetheart, it’s the hope of humanity and for humanity that we do better,” I answered as tears clouded my vision as I remembered all the times, I had failed humanity.

Bellamy immediately rubbed my back to calm me down successfully.

“We will do better, whatever that looks like we are on the right track,” Monty said beside us as our friends all nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there my people,  
> I am so eternally grateful to each and everyone of you who has been commenting during this month and some time long draught from updates. It is because of those comments that I muscled whatever little time I had this past week to write this short chapter. I hope you guys are all pleased and that it didn’t disappoint.  
> Honestly, I felt kind of heart broken after the season finale and for some time found my self without much inspiration. I am hoping to get back to my regular schedule of updating twice a week again soon.   
> I hope everyone had a great Halloween and well wherever it is that you fall on the political spectrum I hope that we can all agree that above all policies is humanity and our respect and love for each other.   
> Please continue to let me know what your thoughts on the chapters are through comments and follows.   
> Love each and everyone of you and hope that you’re all doing well.  
> Keep safe!  
> Emily1050


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